#THE CURRENT TECH JOB MARKET IS MAKING ME WANT TO SLAM MY HEAD INTO A BRICK WALL

[bastionkeeper]

This is gonna be hella specific so please feel free to change anything as you see fit! I highly value artistic freedom and don't want to restrain you too much. But 33 for the prompt list with RK-900 having his programming taken over and he attacks Connor, while still aware of what's going on.... 10/10! Bonus points if Connor is very confused and feels betrayed. Love your Become Deviant and Twisted Code series! You are my favorite author, even beating JK Rowling in my book.

I’m sure you saw me dying over that compliment in my other post so I won’t repeat my gushing here asldkfj. This got way longer than I thought, and I kinda wanna make it a series... enjoy!

33. This is gonna hurt

Not all Cyberlife employees went peacefully into different careers, changing from the production and sales of androids to working with their community, or else back into the world of computers, marketing, or some other old trade that they’d abandoned when the pull of Kamski’s future called. These rogue programmers and engineers retreated to the black market, where they could sell off whatever tech they stole as part of their severance and continue their work without the restrictions of the Jericho Accords.

Which was how the former deviant hunters found themselves hunting down the people that had once held their leash. Connor was happy enough with the work, he got to keep doing what he was good at but for the right reasons. He found it difficult to describe Nines’s feelings on the matter, as his brother and partner was hard to read even after deviating. They’d been working the job for months, and while Connor had plenty to say about being away from home, the excitement of the work, the people they detained, even the weather, Nines remained as quiet and stoic as always.

“We’re 8 to 10, and I plan to catch up, just in case you weren’t keeping track,” Connor attempted to tease as they readied their weapons in the cramped hotel room. Nines ignored the bait almost entirely, save for a roll of his eyes.

“And people say I suffer from a faulty social programming,” Connor said, an old line that never got a rise out of Nines. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Nines answered.

“Just the one word today, huh?” Connor asked. He’d only grown more mouthy with deviancy, and the influence of a certain police lieutenant. “We’ll be friends someday, Nines. I’ll grow on you.”

Nines’s passive frown tightened a bit, as he zipped up his leather jacket and headed for the door.

They’d been trailing their current mark for weeks, from city to city until they’d found him staying with a cousin in a rundown apartment building. The two RKs stood outside that building, dripping from the rain.

“I can’t believe I used to just ignore this sort of thing,” Connor said, holding out a hand and catching raindrops in his palm. “My temperature gauge just dropped four degrees.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nines said sternly, walking past Connor to the door, leaving the older android to sigh and shiver slightly before following.

They took the elevator up three floors, and approached the proper apartment carefully. Nines pulled out his weapon, while Connor knocked.

The apartment door opened a crack, the chain rattling as a man peeked out. “Yeah?”

“We’re looking for Sean Evans,” Connor said, not at all surprised when the man went to slam the door shut. He grabbed the knob, pushing the door to keep it open and snapping the chain with his other hand. The man at the door stumbled backwards, shouting into the living room and alerting the apartment’s other occupant.

“He’s going for the fire escape!” Connor said, getting stopped in his chase when the man who answered the door threw a chair from the dining room table at him. Nines determined the chances of Connor’s success in the ensuing  struggle to be high enough that he could leave him to chase Evans.

He practically leapt down the fire escape, feet splashing into a puddle in the alleyway. He ran after Evans, who was a fleeing shadow in the night pushing past dumpsters and stumbling against the nearby walls. Nines caught him easily, unsurprised when Evans pulled a knife and slashed at him. Nines dodged both stabs, though it did rip through the sleeve of his jacket which he regretted. The jacket had been a gift from Connor.

Nines disarmed the man, tossing the knife aside. “I recommend you do not resist. I have the authority to bring you in unde-”

Nines’s script was interrupted as the man pulled something else from his pocket and quickly slapped it to the back of Nines’s neck. Nines felt his limbs go limp, and was compelled to obey when Evans said: “let me go.”

“Are you armed?” Evans asked.

“Yes,” Nines was forced to answer.

“Give it to me.”

Nines turned over his gun, and then let his arms fall heavily back to his side.

Suddenly, Nines heard Connor descending the fire escape, and Evans swore.

“Keep your buddy busy while I get away, don’t let him follow me,” he said, before taking off.

“Nines, what ar-” was all Connor got to say as Nines rushed him, slamming into Connor with one shoulder.

Oh. This is gonna hurt, Connor thought vaguely as Nines sent him toppling to the ground.

“Nines, what the hell?” Connor leapt to his feet. “I’m sorry he got away, I know I messed up back there bu-”

He was cut off again as Nines grabbed him and threw him into the wall.

Connor had to scramble away, trying to process what was happening as Nines attacked him. He felt fear and anxiety grip him as he wondered what could have caused Nines to snap. He had been teasing him, but Nines always seemed to just ignore that sort of thing.

As Connor moved unintentionally closer to where Evans had fled, Nines grabbed him by the arm, pulling in twisting in a manner that dislocated the limb with a sickening sound of metal tearing against metal. Connor cried out as his vision was bombarded with error messages and the android equivalent of pain was sent rocketing through his body to alert him to the damage.

Nines felt something akin to pain too as he saw Connor’s face contort with a scream. He realized suddenly he’d never really thought about how small and flawed the prototype was. His body was moving to exploit those weaknesses in Connor’s design that they had repaired in his own, and the whole time he begged his hands to stop.

Nines was about to hit the place where Connor’s regulator didn’t quite fit into the port, a blow that would dislodge it and result in possible fatal destruction of the biocomponent, when he felt Connor grasping desperately at the back of his neck.

Because for a split second Connor had seen the blinking red light of the override strip Evans had stuck there.

Connor ripped the strip away, and Nines gave an unnecessary gasp as he fell to his knees. Connor resisted the urge to toss the strip away, step on it, or snap it in half. Evidence was best collected undamaged, so he slipped it into his pocket instead as he knelt down to check on Nines.

“You okay?” he asked.

“You… okay?” Nines asked in disbelief. “I...I…”

“You’ll be alright,” Connor said, putting a hand on Nines’s back. “I-”

“I ripped your arm from its socket, Connor! I smashed in your ankle, am I okay? Are you okay?”

Connor paused, realizing how ridiculous their scene must look. An android beaten to hell checking on a fully functional one. He rocked back off his knees to sit down, taking his injured arm in one hand with a wince of pain and then started to laugh.

“Oh no I damaged your CPU,” Nines said in dismay. “Your emotional reactions are-”

“No, no its fine, Nines,” Connor said. “It’s just you’re right. That was ridiculous of me.”

Nines gave Connor a concerned look, before helping him to his feet. He threw one of Connor’s arms over his shoulder to keep him upright, his concerned look only growing as Connor continued laughing.

“Stop that!” Nines scolded. “Any unnecessary movement could exacerbate the damage.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Connor said. “I just can’t believe it took the guilt of nearly killing me to get you to speak in full sentences.”

Nines huffed, rolling his eyes. “It’s… not as easy for me. Talking and understanding.”

“I know, big guy,” Connor said, patting Nines’s cheek. “That’s alright.”

They started walking, heading back towards the hotel where a repair kit was waiting. They walked in silence until Connor spoke up again.

“Hey, Nines?”

“Yes?”

“Now we’re 9 to 10…”

“Shut up.”

[monolid-monologues]

Wtf is going on - Part I.

#12.

READY OR NOT..............

The next three weeks feel impossible. 

My KNEES are KNOCKING.

TOO MUCH IS HAPPENING

Fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m losing my mind lol. I’m going to take myself through this week by week. Breaking up my next 3 blog posts into a Three part series, and i’m going to slowly tread wtf is going on.

1.) MY JOB, MY LIFE

Karina and i drove LA >> Oakland >> LA in one day to audition for 5 minutes. LoL. We’re crazy and we know that. The troubling fact is this job means quitting my current one and moving to Oakland.

In February at the festival in Oregon, we were invited to audition for Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre. They employ actors to perform shows for kids.

It pays more than my current job. It is less stable than my current job.

I’m TERRIFIED of having *that* conversation with my dad, and my office.

Desperate to avoid a serving job (having worked them since i was 16), i approached my dad for a job at his company. He knows about me and theater. He knew to be cautious. He asked me commit 2 years. I promised my dad 2 years; it’s only been 6 months. There’s a voice in my head chiding me for even considering this new opportunity.

And part of me is very very resistant to the reality of this new opportunity. Moving to Oakland means moving away from Robin, from Heather, from my studio, from all the work i’ve been doing in L.A to lay down some roots. Working full time at a corporate theater. Suffering bay area rent. Potentially losing my dad’s support (he is helping me with car and insurance payments). And pouring so much time into someone else’s theater. And potentially neglecting my own dreams -- risk of being too burnt, busy and broke to manifest my own theater projects. Not to mention all my fears around the importance of artistic freedom to me and needing to comply with a higher authority for paycheck’s sake (literal nightmare). And i just, might, very well, possibly, end up hating the job. 

I fear breaking my promise. Going back on my word. Owning up to the fact that i am not the loyal bitch we hoped i was. I fear these feelings of betrayal. I fear upsetting my dad and losing his support. I fear the disrespect i am slamming on my director & cecillia’s time and energy and trust in me. I fear that there is no “good” decision, but i can see Regret sitting atop my worst case scenario and i’m afraid that it doesn’t even really matter how things go, whether i stay or go, it’s all a sticky situation. 

If i get the job, but don’t go, i am still at the office. Sitting. So much sitting............clutching my small studio time like the life jacket it is...

If i get the job and want go, well, fuck, that’s a lot of, fuck. Can i put my independent theater dreams on hold? Is this experience worth pursuing? Is it worth upsetting my entire life here? Wow. Since when did i get so attached to my life here? I’ve worked so hard since i’ve been here, to seek, and seek, and plan, and build. I’ve been planning for my life here in L.A. I NeVER imagined relocating this soon. Turning my life upside down when i’ve literally JUST managed to get it looking right-side-up. f$&%@#$!

OKAY Normally, i’d wait to see if i got called back to start worrying. But this opportunity requiring 600 mile drives, requiring me and karina to rearrange chunks of our lives, to even be considered for the job, makes every step in the audition process so costly o_o.  We’re asking ourselves “if we do get called back, how are we even going to get there?”  We’re investing and sacrificing for a huge Maybe. Even pursuing the possibility is TOO MUCH!!!! yet here we are. Why? Why am i this crazy about a maybe?

L.A.’S BEEN GROWING ON ME. AND I MIGHT NOT GET THE JOB. LET’S KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID -- 

Tomorrow, we will find out if we’re called back. If we’re called back, the one thing i need to do (the scariest fkn thing ok) is ask for another day off (to secretly attend). If god blesses me with a Yes and my director is NOT fed up with my bullshit, the next thing is figuring out how tf to get there.  And that’s it. That’s it. That’s it. For now.

* * *

An interlude.)

What changes when i decide i’m tired of doubting myself? Staying off social media is a great relief. I stepped back because i was starting to carry some duty to entertain or cater to the tastes of the people who engage with what i post. The anxiety that begins to stir between myself and thoughts of people far away -- with heavy social media comes this baggage we pick up and hold nearly voluntarily. 

Just as we are curious how someone else’s life is going, we imagine other people are curious about ours. 

We second-guess what we want to post.  When it’s about what we want to share in the first place. How anybody receives it is their business. Leave them tf ALONE, LOL. Leave YOURSELF alone!

If it’s your career, you chase one of few formulas. If it’s your hobby, you draw from these formulas and mix in your personal flavor of “idgaf”. And if it’s mostly irrelevant to what you do/what you want, you’re not even bothered. *shrug* 

Every fuckin body will tell you, people who don’t frequent social media are happier. 

Do you think so? Do we think so?  I’m skeptical.  It’s easy to believe, given how much (admit it) time and attention social media sucks. But actually? Let’s be clear: who can know? Lol. The very point around people who don’t use social media is they are beyond the reach of our prying eyes. They are safe, much less susceptible to the wandering imagination of a distant relationship. They are out of bounds. 

Sometimes i wish i was that kind of person. Whoever that means.

I’m not. 

There’s something about getting to show something to hundreds of people. There’s something about connections waiting to be made. Paths that could cross. Click-holes where we lean outside of our usual environments. We are open to exposure and being exposed. We are creative with our public image. We narrate our own lives. We seek others’. ThaT PART. That part. “I will engage!!!!!!!!!!” 

Is it possible to have a healthy relationship with social media?

What does that look like?

There’s so much in our culture that discourages social media use - from mental health to physical health - we are told every day what the pitfalls are. We know it ourselves in living our lives. The common denominator to these warnings is usually over-consumption. Too much. Much too much.

If we are using social media, we are at risk. We know the risks. We live with the risks. ALAS -  we believe we can manage the time/space distortion that the social media universe rips into our lives. 

With social media comes this massive gravitational pull sucking us into a manufactured world. This tech, as far as i’m concerned, insanely complicates our lives - adding data to bodies, instant X long distance everything, and a level of productivity concerning online metrics that is often inversely proportional to our productivity offline. 

The most estranged relationships continue to fizzle quietly with mutual following. Our brains buzz “To post or not to post”. And our eyes are getting tired, our thumbs sore; our time and attention sinks and slips away from us. Like retribution for the discontent, disinterest, and laziness we risk habituating with social media.

We give access and have access and the ride is crippling or energizing depending on whatever people or time in your life. 

Do the rewards outweigh the risks?

* * *

II. SHOWTIME

IT’S GO TIME.

While i’m floundering in the dark about my job, my life, March is ending soon and come April comes the premiere and one-month-run of my new production, 1-800-PERFECTION. 

This is my first show in socal. My first show outside of Davis. My first full solo work. My first script-based PLAY in YEARS.

March Timeline:

meeting with studio manager to settle performance dates (today)

last full rehearsal (3/24 SAT)

tech rehearsal with Heather (3/30 SAT)

preview performance w/ talk back (3/31 SUN) YOU’RE INVITED. rose.artrat@gmail.com | please come! TIME: 1-3pm LOCATION: 1183 Kraemer Blvd, Anaheim, CA

April Timeline:

Dress Rehearsal  (week 1, TBD)

1st Show (week 2, TBD)

2nd show (week 3, TBD)

3rd Show (week 4, TBD) Tickets: $12 venmo  (seat reserved) or $10 cash at door (exact change!!!)

My radical marketing plan is to do it in person.  I wanna shit my pants thinking about it, but i’m determined to go out there into public places and invite people to my show face 2 face. I will certainly let you know how it goes. The experience may turn up a giant dumpster fire. :-)

Common questions when opening a new work include: what if ppl hate it? what if i hate it? what if no one comes? what if this is the end of my reputation as an artist as we know it? as i know it? what if i’m not ready? 

What if i didn’t rehearse enough? THIS ONE’S BEEN HAUNTING ME.

My best friend asks me how long i’ve been working on this play. I tell her i can afford 20 hours of studio time a month. It’s been almost 4 months now. And then she’s like, isn’t 20 hours...less than a day?  *brain explodes* Have i only worked on my show for LESS THAN 4 DAYS? IS IT LIKE THAT? 

It has been living, growing, changing with me day to day. But of course, 20 hours is really it of dedicated work time/space. 5 hours a week. 

I am used to working 30 hours per weeeeeek on a show.  that’s what i’m used to.

....................................................

I remember when i first found this studio offering exactly what i was looking for and could afford, i was ELATED to get 20 hours a month. Considering the ZERO work i was doing my first 2 months back in LA -- Getting 1 step closer to where i would be today - on the cusp of running a whole original ass show - was mooooreee than enough. 

But this is honestly one worry out of SO MANY, literally so many, that it’s all looking - sounding - and feeling increasingly ridiculous. because there’s just so much. *laugh cry emoji* * * * I’m never going to forget what i signed up for. Everything on my plate, i set up for myself.

Was i ready for all of this? No. Did i dream this up and seek its fruition? Hell yes. Even i know that only time will tell me What was What.  So, i will take it one fkn day at a time.

Maybe this is a lesson to follow your dreams no matter what, precisely BECAUSE you’ll never be ready for it. I can’t imagine being ready for what i’m going through these days. There’s no fucking way i could’ve known how stickyyyy things could get when i made my first studio payment in December, or asked my dad for a job in October.

But go through with it, we will, because we’ve reached the point where we must. I’m. Not. Looking. Back.

BUT I AM REALLY TRYING TO TAKE CARE OF MY HEALTH WHILE I’M WHIZZING ACROSS THE STATE AND PREPARING ALL THE SHOW THINGS. WISH ME SOME HONEST LUCK ON THAT.

So, I don’t have a dramatic poignant closer for you on this one. Let’s, uh, give that to Part 3, when we wrap this whole mess up. (ie. is Oakland rlly happening? how was canvassing the brea mall to advertise my show LMAO? did i lose my damn mind, or nah?)

Hi.  I just want to say, thank you for reading. Really. thank you.

I think my writing is suffering from the craziness atm.

* * *

i’ve committed to being vulnerable in writing every week.

previous letter: #11. detox,

drop me a line

http://monolid-monologues.tumblr.com/ask

[gripefroot]

The Undercover Job [1/8]

“What’s this?” Tony squints over at the paper Pepper is sliding towards him - since it has a whiff of fanmail, his hackles are more than a little raised. He doesn’t like fanmail. Since when does Pepper bring mail to Avengers team meetings? The interns are in charge of that sort of thing. Either Pepper’s lost her mind, or this is something serious.  

Weirdly, Tony would prefer the former. 

“Fanmail,” Pepper says briskly. “It’s in code. What do you think?” 

Tony sighs, and picks it up. The hand-scrawled number and letters are meaningless. Pepper probably already knew he would be absolutely clueless about the code - maybe she’s just being polite in letting him try to figure it out before telling him what’s going on. Or maybe Sam or Clint put her up to it, just to see Tony struggle. Even though the team is quiet at the board room table, he doesn’t look around. 

He lowers the paper. “You gonna tell me what this is?” Tony asks.  

Pepper smiles. “Of course.” 

“Can I see it?” Steve asks. Tony slides it over to him, lifting his brows at Pepper as she clears her throat.  

“We don’t normally get mail like this, so it raised a flag,” she begins. “One of the members of the marketing team downstairs is apparently great at puzzles - he cracked the code and forwarded it to me. And now I’m giving it to you.” 

“That still doesn’t tell me what it says,” Tony points out. Bucky snorts across the table, but Pepper is unmoved.  

“It’s from someone asking for help,” she informs him, as Steve passes the letter to Natasha next. “The name signed suggests it’s a girl from a small country in the vicinity of the Mediterranean. Her father is some high-up in the government and he’s doing some pretty bad things. Criminal things. She wants the Avengers.”

“Which country?” Steve asks.  

Pepper pulls out her phone, and a projection of a map appears in the middle of the table. Tony frowns.  

“She asked for our help? Specifically?” he asks. “It’s illegal for enhanced-individuals to operate in that country. She should know that.” 

“Maybe she does. Maybe she doesn’t,” Natasha says. “But maybe she can’t ask anyone else.” 

“Local police?” Tony suggests. 

“Probably paid off by her dad, if he’s a criminal,” Sam points out.  

“Interpol? UN?” 

“Do you have the number to the UN?” Natasha asks sardonically, quirking a brow at Tony. “And do they listen to you? Do you think they’re going to listen to a little girl from a nation that pays their dues?”

“Fair,” Tony admits.  

“If the guy is dabbling in illegal activities, chances are he’s keeping the right eyes turned away,” Steve says, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he studies Tony, much to Tony’s discomfort. “The girl probably is asking us for help because she has no other options. What kind of father do you think this guy is? You think he lets her talk to authorities? Use the internet? If she’s helpless enough to ask us, we should be the ones to help her. Leave petty crimes to local authorities; help those who can’t be helped otherwise. Yeah?” 

Oh, those words are bitter coming back to Tony. But Steve has a point. Tony sighs as he taps his fingers on the table. 

“I don’t disagree,” he says at last, to the expectant looks of the team. “She needs help. The guy should be removed from office, obviously. But we have no power in their country - and the Avengers can’t operate there.” 

“Curiously enough,” Pepper interrupts. “It’s her father that pushed that bill to be passed in the nation’s parliament.” 

“So now we definitely know he has something to hide,” Sam says, and Tony frowns.  

“I don’t doubt it. So, what’s the plan, Cap?” 

Steve appears startled by this change. “Well,” he says after a moment. “We go in, plain-clothes. Find out what’s going on. Get a feel for the situation - get evidence if we can, and give it to whoever has the capabilities to get rid of the guy. Whoever hasn’t been paid off, I mean.” 

“Or we can gently suggest that they shouldn’t accept bribes,” Bucky drawls, and the little smirk on his face leaves no question to Tony of what sort of ‘gentle suggestions’ Bucky has in mind.  

“The country is holding their elections next month,” Pepper says, drawing attention back to the matter at hand. “The father is running for president. Polls indicate that he’s going to be the clear winner - ” 

“More bribes,” Sam mutters.  

“ - which would not be good for the integrity of the government. Short road to a dictatorship from there. What do you think, Tony?” Pepper finishes.  

Tony sighs inwardly; he should’ve known. It goes against the grain to operate under the radar - secrets aren’t really his thing. But it will do no good rushing in with guns blazing; not in this case.  

“Fine,” he says aloud. “Let’s hash out the details of getting in the country, and get this show on the road.”

~

Why does it always have to be security? Bucky thinks grumpily to himself, fitting an assigned com device into his ear. Couldn’t have put me in the kitchens like Sam, or in tech with Tasha - no, it has to be security. It always has to be security.

The single consolation is that Steve is on security, too. And Steve’s disguise is thicker - dyed hair, fake nose, that sort of thing. It’s worth a laugh - but still. Security is boring - and for the little girl who sent Stark the coded message? Bucky could be doing so, so much more.  

“She’s gonna become a fast target if her father catches word of what she did,” Stark had told him. “Keep her out of this, Barnes. No civilian casualties - literal or figurative.” 

Bucky closes his assigned locker, deep in the mansion house, and follows the waiting head of security out.  

Mr. Lalk is not one for words. Bucky appreciates that much.  

The mansion house is located on a deserted beach about three miles from the capital city - a prime location, and certainly worth it. Massive windows and elaborately adorned balconies flank every single room, with views of the crystal blue sea to the east and south, and distant mountains and vineyards to the west. The picturesque city lies to the north. Bucky has to admit it’s a beautiful place - but beautiful places can hide ugly secrets.  

Lalk stops at the last door down the south wing. Folding his hands in front of him to appear stern, Bucky lets his eyes flicker around the ceiling. Two separate security cameras, one pointed down the hall he came from, one fastened on the girl’s room. Not a very trusting father.  

A brisk knock, a tense moment, and then through the door a muffled, “Who is it?” Not as girlish as Bucky expected. Maybe she’s a teenager. He frowns - that’s even worse. He’s gonna talk to Tony about this.  

“It is Mr. Lalk, madam. I have brought your new bodyguard.” 

“My what?” The tone rises, and without waiting for permission Mr. Lalk opens the door. Yikes. Anyone can walk in? Bucky grimaces to himself.  

The bedroom is full to the brim of bright sunlight, courtesy of the open balcony doors facing south. A salty wind filters in, smelling of hot fragrant flowers. Propped up in a chair, with feet resting on the doorknob of a balcony door - the girl.  

Bucky blinks. Girl? Nope. All he can see is the hair, the bare feet, and nimble fingers turning the pages of a book that she’s hiding her nose in. But he knows at once this isn’t a little girl. Without looking back, she says with authority, 

“I will have no guard, Mr. Lalk.” 

“Your father insists - ” 

“Doesn’t matter,” she returns indifferently.  

“With the rising tensions from the upcoming elections…” Lalk’s voice is growing shrill, and Bucky bites back a smile. Spirited woman.  

“Which would be easily circumvented if he wasn’t running for president,” she interrupts.  

“ - your father insists you have a bodyguard, and that is final. If you wish to take it up with him, you may.” Mr. Lalk ends with a sniff, and Bucky waits.  

The feet fall to the ground, and he stares at the woman as she rises from her chair, turning to face Mr. Lalk with her chin in the air. For the briefest moment her eyes land on Bucky with some surprise - he feels the hair on the back of his neck rise - and then she regards Lalk coolly.  

“I will,” she says at last.  

“Until then,” Lalk says irritably, and he jerks his head towards Bucky before turning on his heel to leave the room in a huff. The door is closed with a slam, and Bucky swallows as he meets those eyes again.  

“I’m supposed to stay outside,” he says, a little roughly. “Um - I think he slammed the door to make a point.” Immediately the cool features of the woman soften. Is that humor dancing in her eyes?  

“Undoubtedly,” she says. “You haven’t known Lalk as long as I have.” As she quiets, she catches her bottom lip between her teeth - Bucky swallows again, and finds that he somehow can’t move as she takes a few steps towards him.  

“You have a sister?” he asks next, desperate for some explanation. “Or did you send that letter?” 

Her eyes widen slightly, and he can see the precise shade all the better. “There’s a camera in here - ” she starts to say. 

“We have someone in the tech room. Don’t worry about what you say,” Bucky tells her. “Go ahead. Brief me.” 

She blinks. “Okay. Well - I did send the letter, yes. I didn’t think…” 

“That we’d come?” 

“Yes.” She squares her shoulders. “You were my last hope.” There’s a depth to those eyes, the quiet desperation and long-suffering that Bucky starts to feel a strange twisting in his stomach. 

“We’re gonna help,” Bucky promises, even though he knows better than to make such promises.  

Her lips curl into a smile - a very lovely smile, he doesn’t fail to notice. The sea breeze is floating her airy wrap around her, and damn - if the sea doesn’t set off those eyes perfectly.  

Bucky realizes belatedly that he shouldn’t be thinking these things. 

“Two nights ago one of the candidates running against my father turned up dead in Spain,” she says bluntly. “And just this morning another withdrew from the race and has apparently left the country. At this rate, there won’t even be anyone else to vote for besides my father. Our current president is already sipping wine on his vineyard, anticipating a rich retirement.” 

“Sounds about right.” 

“I want to help,” she adds, her voice getting stronger. “But I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what I can do.”

“We’re gonna get proof of crimes to the right people,” Bucky says. “You can help us find what we need. Stark’s looking into potential enforcement that can help for when the time comes. Until then, I - um, we need you to keep your father from suspecting anything. It’s illegal for us to even be here.” 

Her nose wrinkles. “I know. That stupid law. You must think I’m an idiot for asking for your help.” 

Maybe he had. But not anymore. Because she’s pretty? Bucky decides that Sam had better not find out, or he’ll never hear the end of it.  

“I think you’re in a difficult position,” Bucky says diplomatically. Steve would be so proud. “It’s hard to live in the shadow of evil and unable to fight it.” 

“I’m going to fight it,” she says fiercely, and her fingers clench around the spine of her book. Bucky wets his lips. “Whatever it takes - I hate the illegal money, I hate that everyone I know seems to turn up dead, I hate the cheating and I hate that I have to pretend that I like it. This place is a prison.” 

“As far as prisons go, this one isn’t so bad,” Bucky tries to joke. It falls flat. Nope, Steve wouldn’t be proud, and her eyes glitter.  

“Do you know how my father came to own this property?” she asks, lifting a brow. “No? I’ll tell you. It belonged to a man named Tutoi - he became addicted to gambling and wagered it. Perhaps not so bad a story?” Her lips are thin, pressed together. “My father hired the men to pressure Tutoi to keep gambling. To rile him up, to give him more liquor, to make him angry and reckless. And the man that won the house ‘gifted’ it to my father while Tutoi was in prison for drunkenness. All because my father wanted the view.” 

Bucky’s jaw is ticking.  

“So yes,” she adds, and steps even closer to Bucky now. He can smell her perfume, and he tries to swallow it away. “This is a prison. And I would rather sleep in the streets than this stolen bed.” 

Bucky tries not to look at the bed across the room. The gold, gilded canopy wants his attention though.  

“What are the chances we can talk to the man that won the house for your father?” he asks hoarsely.  

“Very poor. His bones rot in the sea. My father is especially skilled at burning his tracks.” 

“Ah.” Bucky can’t look away from her face - the determined expression, the hidden horrors that she must be carrying on her shoulders. Even as annoyed as he is that Stark never figured out it wasn’t a little girl that sent the coded message, but a young woman too enchanting for her own good - he feels more than a little twist in his heart; of sympathy, mostly, and a burgeoning urge to protect her. No innocent person should have to endure this.  

Her lips part slightly as he reaches to pick up her empty hand in his own.  

“We’re gonna help you.” His voice is softer now. “And you’re gonna help us. Is that okay?” 

A nod. 

“Do you trust me?” 

A hesitation, then another nod.  

“Then let’s start with where we can find some hard evidence.”

continue

[betterdaysareatoenailaway]

TO HAVE & HAVE NOT #2: STARTUPS FOR SHITHEADS

I have never understood the borderline hagiographical hoopla that surrounds startups. Even the fucking name suggests a kind of nascent know-nothing numbskullery. The “it’s my first day” excuse. Vaporware. Half-formed ideas surrounded by full-time douchebaggery. Such were my impressions before I ever read anything about startups. Now that I have done so, I can see that I was underestimating just how poorly run these companies can be. 

As far as I can tell, it works like this: A middle-aged white man gets an idea to fill a need in [insert industry here]. This man always lacks the necessary skill to deliver the product, so he cherrypicks undergraduate college kids (knowing they will work for very little money) to do the hard work in an open-concept office while he hides behind the foreboding oak door that he slams every time he enters his office, lest the underlings deign to ask the question they’re all dying to ask, which is....what do you do?

In the movie Steve Jobs (not the Ashton Kutcher one, though the fact that I have to differentiate shows just how revered these do-nothing con men are) there is a great scene where Seth Rogen asks the titular fuckhead that very question.

I won’t ruin the answer for you, but you can probably guess it’s a needlessly convoluted rationalization that boils down to: “umm...not much.” The only thing the middle-aged white male CEO can do is sell his vision. He cannot sell his product because it doesn’t exist. And as the upcoming selected quotes will show, sometimes he doesn’t even want the product to exist. A physical product necessarily has features and details, a pesky sentience that weighs it down and keeps it from flying.  But dreams float forever. So the company exists to sell the dream, to peddle a promise of a future world where the product exists and has improved the lives of those (and only those) who use it.

A series of high-level meetings take place either in golf clubs or conference rooms or both, and money starts pouring in. Said money is promptly spent on sex workers, booze, and/or drugs. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, I’m merely pointing out that the money is spent fast and spent stupidly. Not to wag my finger, but if you can’t pay your lowest paid employees’ paycheques and they’re late on rent and have empty fridges...you should lay off the rippers and the blow. Furthermore you are a shithead and your hubris has a very real human cost. But the shitheads keep coming. I read an article this week that talked about the history of the coded, racialized term “superpredator” and its very real consequences on incarceration and Black youth in America. The news media should have warned us about the shitheads instead. Think of the headlines! THE SHITHEADS ARE COMING. Or the news media should have kept the term but replaced its description from African-American gang member to middle-aged white golf club member. 

See, even though over 95% of startups fail to recoup the money it cost them to...ahem...start up...people keep falling for this shit. The shitheads keep coming. It’s like nobody can say no. Such largesse is bound to give birth to arrogant assholes who are bad at numbers and can’t code. And the absenteeism reported on in these articles is nothing short of miraculous. So when you’re a CEO you can just...not go to work? That’s an option?

Apparently. In the two examples I read, the boss comes in late if he comes in at all. It all reminds me of the scene in Apocalypse Now where a weary Martin Sheen, huddled in a trench to escape mortars fired by an unseen enemy, barks “Who’s in charge here?” and the guy next to him says “I thought you were.”

The two different articles I read are about corporate impropriety. Both feature eerily similar quotes about eerily similar situations in which the CEO - the ostensible leader of the company and therefore the shepherd and spokesperson for its “product” - actually does not want the software to be completed, because by leaving the product in a state of perpetual almost-thereness, more investors can be duped, which means more hookers rented, more booze bought, and more drugs done. 

And more entry-level workers fucked over by their paycheques either bouncing or not coming up at all.

It all sounds like reality TV. When Startups Close Down or When Idiots Collapse.

Here’s a quote from a Toronto Life article about a Canadian capitalist named Boaz Manor who used the fake name Shaun McDonald to start a new venture (of course a rich guy’s last name is Manor...to the manor born, amirite?): 

“Leong, Ortiz and others who did the demos insist the terminals would have worked, or could have. But they say Shaun seemed to be more interested in the marketing than in the product itself. ‘I believe the tech was never finished because Shaun didn’t want it finished. What he wanted was to raise more money,’ Ortiz says.”

And here’s a quote from an article in The Verge that details the almost-boring-because-so-inevitable rise and fall of a company called Oomba, run by a douche named Michael Williams:

“After four years, the company’s core product was never able to do what it said it was supposed to: work with any game. It’s possible this was because many of Oomba’s engineers were college students whom Williams apparently sometimes paid in free food and the promise of stock options. Or maybe, a few employees suggest, he preferred to keep the software unfinished. ‘There’s glitches and glitches and glitches, but he didn’t want it to work. He wanted it to stay almost done, to raise more money from investors,’ one senior-level employee believes.”

Bearing such malfeasance in mind, I’d like to announce that I’m starting my own startup called...uhhh....let’s go with Revivify. Our product will be vaguely revolutionary in [insert field or industry here] and our company will stay private by courting the interest and support of venture capital firms. In the hawkish world of venture capital and leveraged buyouts, “interest” means time-consuming meetings and “support” means money. Our CEO shall be me, and I will be spending $500 a day on heroin, $500 a day on coke, and $1000 a day on crack. $2 for my morning double-double. I will be arrested sometime in late 2022 and go to jail for four years. The day I am released I will overdose on fentanyl in a Starbucks bathroom in Guelph. 

I’m kidding, of course. But Jesus F Christ, what a fucking hustle these guys ran. An eternal “coming soon” sign. Always almost done. Brilliant assholes, these startup starters. All of them. I’m neither creative nor mercenary enough to do what these CEOs did, though I have done terrible things in my life to get the money that pays for heroin. I’m just smart enough to know that my life is essentially tainted, just talented enough to know I don’t have enough talent to make a living from it. Let me leave you with a quote from Mary Robinson’s “Yours”, a story that appeared in The New Yorker in the early 1980s, a story with a quote that explains my conspicuous lack of accomplishment and achievement in my 34 years on this planet:

“...to own only a little talent....was an awful, plaguing thing...being only a little special meant you expected too much, most of the time.”

Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.

To have just enough talent to know you’re not talented enough to get paid for the one thing you’re good at doing sucks. Lockdown is back again and my job is gone. Therefore I am currently selling the lower half of this photograph to the highest bidder. Bidding started this morning at 35 cents and I’m already up to $4. Go capitalism. As Alan Greenspan once proclaimed, perhaps unwittingly displaying the kind of circular logic only Americans seem capable of: “The regulatory mechanism that oversees the market is...the market.”

This is the financial version of “we had to destroy the village in order to save it.”

Anyway I’m kidding. There isn’t really a lower half to that photograph. There’s nothing to see. I’m selling you the hope that you will see my penis. I can’t believe someone has offered me $4 for it. I didn’t expect to clear $3.25.

ANYWAY that’s it for me, for now. I’m heading back to fictionland, where I actually wield a modicum of power, though it’s not power I want.

It’s comfort. Comfort for me and my cat. I just got over an illness that might have been COVID and I have my cat Cookie to thank for assisting my speedy recovery. The only reason I read about the above-mentioned startups is because I was lying prone for ten days, groaning and reading articles. So if you’re bored or perhaps sick, here’s a link to an excellent Stephen King short story, also published in The New Yorker: http://writ101van.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/7/3/22735066/king_the_man_in_the_black_suit.pdf And here is an impeccably well-crafted piece on self-respect, something I decidedly lack, by Joan Didion: https://www.vogue.com/article/joan-didion-self-respect-essay-1961 Sorry about the lack of updates on here, all one or two of you who read this. I’ve been writing a new novel and trying to find a publisher or agent for my first one, a decidedly non-commercial affair. 900+ pages. I gtg. Sleep awaits. I have a startup to start tmrw. 

[dailyconradricamora]

Out Gay Actor Conrad Ricamora On His Hits “Here Lies Love” & ABC’s “How To Get Away With Murder”

Last week, SGS had the opportunity to catch up with Conrad Ricamora from ABC’s hit show, “How to Get Away With Murder.” He dishes with Teriyaki Temple (aka David Luc Nguyen) about working opposite Viola Davis, the hazards of Grindr, breaking down stereotypes for Asian actors, creepy stalker moments and so much more…including his current project that brings him to the Emerald City, his starring role in the hit musical at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Here Lies Love written by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim.

Teriyaki Temple/David Luc Nguyen: Welcome to Seattle, Conrad! What brings you to our neck of the woods and are you enjoying your visit so far? 

Conrad Ricamora: I’m loving Seattle and everything it has to offer.  I am currently doing HERE LIES LOVE at Seattle Repertory Theatre. (The musical) started at the beginning of March and (was recently) extended to June 18th.  We are doing 8 shows a week.  There are still some tickets available. I know that it was selling out, especially for the Thursday, Friday, Saturday night shows. But there are still some tickets available.

TT: With such a busy schedule have had much opportunity to check out some of Seattle’s attractions? 

CR: I’ve been down to the (Pike Place) Market a couple times…got the grilled cheese at Beecher’s, which is my favorite. Ate at this place called “Sushi Kashiba, I guess, which is one of Shiro’s restaurants.

TT: Can you tell me more about about “Here Lies Love?” I read somewhere that you sing as well.      

CR: “Here Lies Love” is musical written by David Byrne who is the lead singer of Talking Heads.  Fatboy Slim also did some of the music, too. The show is about the the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos where I play Ninoy Aquino, who’s the Filipino revolutionary leader that helps to try to overthrow the Marcos’ dictatorship.  It really focuses on the politics and the human rights abuses that happened in the Philippines.

TT: Do you think themes in this show echoes what’s going on in our current political climate here in United States?

CR: Yeah. I think it– David had the idea to write a show about powerful people that live in a bubble and are out of touch with what regular, normal people are going through.I mean, if that doesn’t echo what’s going on right now, I don’t know what does. And also shows what happens when powerful people try to be above the law and especially this week, which is really just blowing my mind about how relative this show is right now.

TT: Do you call LA home usually, or where do you call home?

CR: Yeah. Both LA and New York. Right now, like I’ll go straight from here to LA once we start shooting in July. But New York…I’m still doing a lot of work there as well so I’m kind of back and forth between those two.With co-star Jack Falahee who plays Conrad’s onscreen romantic interest on ABC TV’s “How To Get Away With Murder”

TT: Nice!  Let’s talk, How To Get Away With Murder.  Your character, seems like he is the moral compass of the show. You’re surrounded by some pretty dark characters. Do you see Oliver being influenced by his peers? Or do you think that he might help them, raise them out of moral ambiguity or–?

CR: Well, I definitely think he’s being drawn to the dark rise.  yeah, I think that he’s making the choice to go over to the dark side a little bit more just by asking for a full-time job with Annalise.And he’s stepping out of his own boundaries that he sets for himself as a person. Because of his relationship with Connor, I think that whether that turns into something as dark as being complicit in a murder [laughter] which he’s not quite there yet, although wiping the cell phone clean and kind of helping in that way is– he didn’t really know what will be.He was just helping Annalise. He didn’t really know what he was doing at the time, but yeah. We’ll see how much more proactive he gets in that area, of covering up and being a little– just walking that fine line of being ethical and being a criminal [laughter].

TT: Looking forward to seeing how your character and the show develops.  I read that you are of, I believe, Filipino and German descent?  

CR: Yeah. Well, my mom is white. She’s from New Hampshire and my dad was born in the Philippines so I’m, yeah, half and half.   

TT: Do you think it’s harder to be an Asian-American or mixed Asian-American in Hollywood?

CR: Well, I don’t really know. It hasn’t been for me so far [laughter]. I know that there’s definitely a lack of representation of well-rounded Asian characters….historically that’s been…we’ve been seen as comedic relief and kind of like the clowns and not been seen as fully realized human beings with sex drives, and complicated emotions, and complicated thoughts.  We’ve been kind of portrayed as cartoons, for the most part, in history. And I think that’s changing a lot now. I mean, I think there’s still a long way to go especially when you hear of projects that are casting white people as Asian characters.That’s especially frustrating. I mean, you would never hear of– and there’s not as much outrage about that happening as it is when a white person would try to play a black person. And so it’s kind of like we still have a long way to go for that kind of equality to catch up. But I think we’re moving in the right direction. We’re just not there yet.

TT: Are you referencing Tilda Swinton from Doctor Strange where she plays the Master?

CR: I heard about it. I haven’t watched it or don’t know it well enough, don’t know the project well enough to comment on it.I heard Emma Stone was getting cast in “Aloha” as a half-Vietnamese person [laughter].

TT: Oh yeah, I totally see Emma Stone with her red hair and freckles being half Vietnamese [laughter].

CR: So yeah. It’s just like those kinds of things. It’s kind of like, well, can’t you just cast an Asian person? The role is written for an Asian person.There’s plenty of Asian actors that are looking for work. And if we don’t get seen, some producers and people and Hollywood executives say, “We don’t have an Asian star to carry the film.” And it’s like, well, if you don’t let us be seen, then we can’t be a star.”

TT: I agree! I totally hear ya!  

CR: It’s this frustrating cycle of oppression. They’re saying that we’re not stars, but we’re never given a chance to be main characters in– we’re not even allowed to play our own ethnicity sometimes, so– unless it’s a horrendously cartoony version of it. So, I mean, I do think it’s getting better. Like I said, I still think we still have a long way to go.

TT: Let’s talk Stereotypes.  So your character, Oliver, is of mixed Asian decent and he’s very tech-savvy and he’s a gay male who’s HIV-positive.Some critics would say that Oliver reinforces some of the stereotypes that Hollywood portrays about gay men all having HIV and Asians being very smart, techy and nerdy and that all gay Asian men are submissive.  What would you say to those critics and how do you think that your character challenges those stereotypes?

CR: I will say that when I went in to audition for the role, I was the only Asian guy in the waiting room. The guy that went in before me to audition for Oliver was black. The guy that went in after me was white, and so in the breakdown for the character, it wasn’t like they were looking for an Asian guy.They just hired me to do it. And it hasn’t been– I really do feel like I’ve been able to play a really well-rounded character on the show. And a lot of the stereotypes of Asian men being submissive are not at all perpetuated in the portrayal of Oliver or in the way that he’s written.  So I don’t agree with some of the stereotypes. If people say that Oliver is perpetuating any stereotypes, I just don’t see it. 

TT: Agreed.  I also believe that not all stereotypes are bad.  I also think that you are a correct.  Oliver doesn’t take much off of Connor when he is just looking for a late night booty call.  I love how assertive he is (Oliver)  in their relationship. I loved it when you slammed the door in his face in one of the episodes and when you let Connor know who was in charge in the bedroom.  Soooooo, moving to the next topic.   My friends asked me to ask you if you were seeing anyone [laughing]. 

CR: Well, I guess it’s complicated [laughter].

TT: To satisfy my own curiosity.  How does a celebrity like you date?  Do you guys go on Grindr or Tinder or what [laughter]?

CR: No, you can’t really do apps once you have any kind of notoriety because then people are just– you don’t know if people just want to get in touch with you just to– if you’re all of a sudden just some novelty.  So your privacy becomes a lot more– you become a lot more guarded in that regard and rely mostly on just face-to-face meetings, and meeting people through friends, and stuff like that. So yeah, I will say that any type of fame or notoriety has made it much more difficult to date [laughter].

TT: If you were to date one of the handsome many candy from the show, who would you probably most like see yourself pairing up with? Would it be Jack, Charlie, Alfred, Billy, or Matt?

CR: I’m going to jump away from that and say I want to date Viola (Davis)! [laughter]

TT: Hahahah good pivot.   I can’t say I don’t blame you though.  Viola is beautiful and so talented.

CR: She is such a badass to me, and she is sexy and yeah [laughter]. I would skip everyone and jump there [laughter].

TT:  How is it working with her? I mean, did you know her work coming into the project?

CR: Yeah, I respected her immensely as an actor, watching her in Doubt and The Help. I was so excited to be able to act opposite her.  And she’s just the nicest, realest person, and puts everyone at ease on set. Yeah, still, it’s such a joy to work opposite of her.TT: Have you had any weird fan experiences so far?CR: Yeah, when I was doing The King and I, at the stage door a woman that was visiting from another country asked if she could kiss me. And I was like, “Uh, no [laughter].”Yeah, that was probably the strangest thing, just somebody– I was kind of shocked and like, “Wow, that’s bold.”

TT: Who are some of the artists in your current music playlist right now?

CR: Before the show to warm up I listen to Beyonce’s Lemonade album. I listen to the song called– the song “Freedom” and that old George Michael song “Freedom”. I just think a lot of our show has to deal with freedom…freedom for the people. I just feel like that kind of music pumps me up and gets me excited.

TT: So I’m curious. How does a psychology major end up in Hollywood?

CR: I took an acting class in college and then I just kept doing it, and just started doing community theater and found that it was something that I really wanted to do and then it slowly started paying. Then I went back to get my MFA in acting and just kept going. Realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life and just kept doing it.Yeah, I didn’t know– when I was 18 deciding a major it’s like I didn’t really know who I was or what I wanted to do. It wasn’t until my junior year that I started discovering, “Oh. Wait, this is what I want to do.”

TT: That’s awesome. So I think I read you were from– is it Niceville, Florida?  I imagine it’s kind of like growing up in southern Washington, where I grew up. I can’t imagine there is much diversity there?

CR: No, it wasn’t diverse at all. I was one of maybe– I think there were 3 other Asian people in my high school and the high school had close to 2,000 people [laughter] and there were only 4 of us. So it was very not diverse. Very conservative. And we didn’t even have a theater or an arts program. So I wasn’t even exposed to theater or acting or didn’t even know it was possible until I went away to college.

TT: Did you come out when you were still in your hometown? Or how was that process for you?

CR: When I was in undergrad I came out to my best friend, and then slowly just started coming out to my parents and other people.

TT: And how did your parents take it?

CR: Yeah, they took it well. I mean, they were really supportive, and just kind of said that it was okay, and that they wanted me to be who I was, and not try to be what I thought anybody else wanted me to be, or needed me to be. So, I mean, they were just there for me.

TT: So I guess, do you have any other projects coming up? You mentioned in July you’ll be heading back to the set for How to Get Away with Murder. Do you have any other plans in the works?

CR: Yeah, I just shot this indie film that got picked up by Amazon that– I think it’s going to be on Amazon in 2018. It’s called The Light of the Moon and it deals with sexual assault in it, so that just got picked up, but it won’t be available until 2018, so it’ll be a while.

TT: Thanks for time out of your busy schedule to chat with me today and looking forward to seeing more of you and your work in the future.

[nancygduarteus]

How Do You Regulate a Self-Improving Algorithm?

At a large technology conference in Toronto this fall, Anna Goldenberg, a star in the field of computer science and genetics, described how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing medicine. Algorithms based on the AI principle of machine learning now can outperform dermatologists at recognizing skin cancers in blemish photos. They can beat cardiologists in detecting arrhythmias in EKGs. In Goldenberg’s own lab, algorithms can be used to identify hitherto obscure subcategories of adult-onset brain cancer, estimate the survival rates of breast-cancer patients, and reduce unnecessary thyroid surgeries.

It was a stunning taste of what’s to come. According to McKinsey Global Institute, large tech companies poured as much as $30 billion into AI in 2016, with another $9 billion going into AI start-ups. Many people already are familiar with how machine learning—the process by which computers automatically refine an analytical model as new data comes in, teasing out new trends and linkages to optimize predictive power—allows Facebook to recognize the faces of friends and relatives, and Google to know where you want to eat lunch. These are useful features—but pale in comparison to the new ways in which machine learning will change health care in coming years.

The science is unstoppable, and so is the flow of funding. But at least one roadblock stands in the way: a big, bureaucratic Cold War–era regulatory apparatus that could prove to be fundamentally incompatible with the very nature of artificial intelligence.

* * *

Every professional subculture has its heroes. At the Food and Drug Administration, the greatest hero is Frances Oldham Kelsey, who in the 1960s stubbornly refused to license Kevadon, a sedative that alleviated symptoms of morning sickness in pregnant women. As mothers in other countries would learn, the drug—better known by its generic name, thalidomide—could cause horrible birth defects. Kelsey’s vigilance in the face of heavy corporate pressure helped inspire the rigorous evaluation model that the FDA now applies to everything from pharmaceuticals to hospital equipment to medical software.

At the very core of this model is the assumption that any product may be clinically tested, produced, marketed, and used in a defined, unchanging form. That’s why the blood-pressure machines many people use in pharmacies look a lot like the ones they used a decade ago. Deviation from an old FDA-approved model requires an entirely new approvals process, with all the attendant costs and delays.

But that build-and-freeze model isn’t the way AI software development typically works—especially when it comes to machine-learning processes. These systems are essentially meta-algorithms that spit out new operational products every time fresh data is added—producing, in effect, a potentially infinite number of newly minted “medical devices” every day. (A nonmedical example would be the speech-recognition programs that gradually teach themselves how to better understand a user’s voice.) This phenomenon is creating a culture gap between the small, nimble medical-software boutiques creating these technologies, and the legacy regulatory system that developed to serve large corporate manufacturers.

Consider, for instance, Cloud DX: This Canadian company uses AI technology to scrutinize the audio waveform of a human cough, which allows it to detect asthma, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other lung diseases. In April, the California-based XPRIZE foundation named Cloud DX its “Bold Epic Innovator” in its Star Trek–inspired Qualcomm Tricorder competition, whereby participants were asked to create a single device that an untrained person could use to measure their vital signs. The company received a $100,000 prize and lots of great publicity—but doesn’t yet have FDA approval to market this product for clinical applications. And getting such approval may prove difficult.

Which helps explain why many health-software innovators are finding other, creative ways to get their ideas to market. “There’s a reason that tech companies like Google haven’t been going the FDA route [of clinical trials aimed at diagnostic certification],” says Robert Kaul, the founder and CEO of Cloud DX. “It can be a bureaucratic nightmare, and they aren’t used to working at this level of scrutiny and slowness.” He notes that just getting a basic ISO 13485 certification, which acts as a baseline for the FDA’s device standards, can cost two years and seven figures. “How many investors are going to give you that amount of money just so you can get to the starting line?”

“Twenty percent of my company’s head count is devoted exclusively to regulatory issues,” says Vic Gundotra, a former Google executive who now runs a medical company that detects heart issues early. “At Google, sometimes we’d decide on something, and we’d ship it six weeks later. So when I got here, and we had a breakthrough, I’d say, ‘How fast can we ship this out?’ And they’d say, ‘Two years.’ That digital creed of ‘Move fast and break things’ just doesn’t work.”

Kaul is hopeful, because he believes that the FDA contacts he’s garnered through the XPRIZE will help Cloud DX navigate the system. And like everyone I spoke to for this article, he recognizes that the FDA has a necessary role in protecting patients from false claims and dangerous products. He even sees an upside to the agency’s dilatory processes. “For those few companies who do make it through, they have an enormous competitive advantage,” he says. “We won’t have to worry about the usual scenario: Two guys from Stanford in a garage inventing some app that instantly takes away all our business. We only have to worry about the big players—who might just buy us out instead of competing with us.”

* * *

Complaints about the FDA’s lengthy processes are an old story. Five years before becoming Donald Trump’s FDA Commissioner, for instance, Scott Gottlieb slammed the agency for needless delays in the assessment of lifesaving drugs for children afflicted with Hunter syndrome. But the need for reform has become more acute, as software algorithms have become a more critical component of health systems.

WinterLight Labs, a Canadian start-up, is developing machine-learning software that can detect various forms of cognitive impairment, including early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, by analyzing snippets of a patient’s speech. The technology is currently being tested at assisted-care facilities. But Liam Kaufman, the company’s CEO, is unsure whether or when his technology will be ready for FDA approval—in part because it is still unclear whether such approval would require that he freeze his product in a defined state. His alternative plan is to market the product as a screening tool, which does not purport to diagnose the presence of a medical condition, but merely provides guidance about when users should consult a doctor.

The larger risk, many entrepreneurs in the field told me, is not that new AI-enabled health technologies will go completely untapped, but that they will be shunted into the far less regulated sphere of general “wellness,” where they will be marketed as lifestyle products. An example Kaul cites in this regard is the Muse brain-sensing headband, a technology that could be adapted to all sorts of important medical applications, but which currently is being marketed as a gadget to help “elevate your meditation experience.”

Bakul Patel, the new associate center director for digital health at the FDA, has recently launched a pilot program, “FDA Pre-Cert,” which could eventually allow agency officials to focus their inspections on “the software developer or digital-health technology developer, rather than primarily at the product,” according to an announcement. (The nine corporate participants selected for the initial program include Apple, Fitbit, and Samsung, as well as several much smaller companies.) Official public statements seem to imply that these pre-certified companies might one day be permitted to optimize their software products without seeking FDA approval upon every iteration—though Patel, who comes to his job with a strong background in business development and technology, is studiously noncommittal on this point.

“We are evolving that space,” he says. “The legacy model is the one we know works. But the model that works continuously—we don’t yet have something to validate that. So the question is [as much] scientific as regulatory: How do you reconcile real-time learning [with] people having the same level of trust and confidence they had yesterday?”

In the meantime, Patel is “hiring like crazy” in an effort to ramp up the FDA’s digital bench strength, according to Christina Farr, a CNBC reporter who covers medical regulation. But attracting the right people has proven difficult, because the field is so hot. As The New York Times reported this week, AI specialists with even minimal experience now are attracting compensation packages of more than $300,000 per year at large tech companies—far more than the FDA can afford to pay.

“Yes, it’s hard to recruit people in AI right now,” Patel acknowledges. “We have some understanding of these technologies. But we need more people. This is going to be a challenge.”

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/algorithms-future-of-health-care/543825/?utm_source=feed

[hellofastestnewsfan]

At a large technology conference in Toronto this fall, Anna Goldenberg, a star in the field of computer science and genetics, described how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing medicine. Algorithms based on the AI principle of machine learning now can outperform dermatologists at recognizing skin cancers in blemish photos. They can beat cardiologists in detecting arrhythmias in EKGs. In Goldenberg’s own lab, algorithms can be used to identify hitherto obscure subcategories of adult-onset brain cancer, estimate the survival rates of breast-cancer patients, and reduce unnecessary thyroid surgeries.

It was a stunning taste of what’s to come. According to McKinsey Global Institute, large tech companies poured as much as $30 billion into AI in 2016, with another $9 billion going into AI start-ups. Many people already are familiar with how machine learning—the process by which computers automatically refine an analytical model as new data comes in, teasing out new trends and linkages to optimize predictive power—allows Facebook to recognize the faces of friends and relatives, and Google to know where you want to eat lunch. These are useful features—but pale in comparison to the new ways in which machine learning will change health care in coming years.

The science is unstoppable, and so is the flow of funding. But at least one roadblock stands in the way: a big, bureaucratic Cold War–era regulatory apparatus that could prove to be fundamentally incompatible with the very nature of artificial intelligence.

* * *

Every professional subculture has its heroes. At the Food and Drug Administration, the greatest hero is Frances Oldham Kelsey, who in the 1960s stubbornly refused to license Kevadon, a sedative that alleviated symptoms of morning sickness in pregnant women. As mothers in other countries would learn, the drug—better known by its generic name, thalidomide—could cause horrible birth defects. Kelsey’s vigilance in the face of heavy corporate pressure helped inspire the rigorous evaluation model that the FDA now applies to everything from pharmaceuticals to hospital equipment to medical software.

At the very core of this model is the assumption that any product may be clinically tested, produced, marketed, and used in a defined, unchanging form. That’s why the blood-pressure machines many people use in pharmacies look a lot like the ones they used a decade ago. Deviation from an old FDA-approved model requires an entirely new approvals process, with all the attendant costs and delays.

But that build-and-freeze model isn’t the way AI software development typically works—especially when it comes to machine-learning processes. These systems are essentially meta-algorithms that spit out new operational products every time fresh data is added—producing, in effect, a potentially infinite number of newly minted “medical devices” every day. (A nonmedical example would be the speech-recognition programs that gradually teach themselves how to better understand a user’s voice.) This phenomenon is creating a culture gap between the small, nimble medical-software boutiques creating these technologies, and the legacy regulatory system that developed to serve large corporate manufacturers.

Consider, for instance, Cloud DX: This Canadian company uses AI technology to scrutinize the audio waveform of a human cough, which allows it to detect asthma, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other lung diseases. In April, the California-based XPRIZE foundation named Cloud DX its “Bold Epic Innovator” in its Star Trek–inspired Qualcomm Tricorder competition, whereby participants were asked to create a single device that an untrained person could use to measure their vital signs. The company received a $100,000 prize and lots of great publicity—but doesn’t yet have FDA approval to market this product for clinical applications. And getting such approval may prove difficult.

Which helps explain why many health-software innovators are finding other, creative ways to get their ideas to market. “There’s a reason that tech companies like Google haven’t been going the FDA route [of clinical trials aimed at diagnostic certification],” says Robert Kaul, the founder and CEO of Cloud DX. “It can be a bureaucratic nightmare, and they aren’t used to working at this level of scrutiny and slowness.” He notes that just getting a basic ISO 13485 certification, which acts as a baseline for the FDA’s device standards, can cost two years and seven figures. “How many investors are going to give you that amount of money just so you can get to the starting line?”

“Twenty percent of my company’s head count is devoted exclusively to regulatory issues,” says Vic Gundotra, a former Google executive who now runs a medical company that detects heart issues early. “At Google, sometimes we’d decide on something, and we’d ship it six weeks later. So when I got here, and we had a breakthrough, I’d say, ‘How fast can we ship this out?’ And they’d say, ‘Two years.’ That digital creed of ‘Move fast and break things’ just doesn’t work.”

Kaul is hopeful, because he believes that the FDA contacts he’s garnered through the XPRIZE will help Cloud DX navigate the system. And like everyone I spoke to for this article, he recognizes that the FDA has a necessary role in protecting patients from false claims and dangerous products. He even sees an upside to the agency’s dilatory processes. “For those few companies who do make it through, they have an enormous competitive advantage,” he says. “We won’t have to worry about the usual scenario: Two guys from Stanford in a garage inventing some app that instantly takes away all our business. We only have to worry about the big players—who might just buy us out instead of competing with us.”

* * *

Complaints about the FDA’s lengthy processes are an old story. Five years before becoming Donald Trump’s FDA Commissioner, for instance, Scott Gottlieb slammed the agency for needless delays in the assessment of lifesaving drugs for children afflicted with Hunter syndrome. But the need for reform has become more acute, as software algorithms have become a more critical component of health systems.

WinterLight Labs, a Canadian start-up, is developing machine-learning software that can detect various forms of cognitive impairment, including early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, by analyzing snippets of a patient’s speech. The technology is currently being tested at assisted-care facilities. But Liam Kaufman, the company’s CEO, is unsure whether or when his technology will be ready for FDA approval—in part because it is still unclear whether such approval would require that he freeze his product in a defined state. His alternative plan is to market the product as a screening tool, which does not purport to diagnose the presence of a medical condition, but merely provides guidance about when users should consult a doctor.

The larger risk, many entrepreneurs in the field told me, is not that new AI-enabled health technologies will go completely untapped, but that they will be shunted into the far less regulated sphere of general “wellness,” where they will be marketed as lifestyle products. An example Kaul cites in this regard is the Muse brain-sensing headband, a technology that could be adapted to all sorts of important medical applications, but which currently is being marketed as a gadget to help “elevate your meditation experience.”

Bakul Patel, the new associate center director for digital health at the FDA, has recently launched a pilot program, “FDA Pre-Cert,” which could eventually allow agency officials to focus their inspections on “the software developer or digital-health technology developer, rather than primarily at the product,” according to an announcement. (The nine corporate participants selected for the initial program include Apple, Fitbit, and Samsung, as well as several much smaller companies.) Official public statements seem to imply that these pre-certified companies might one day be permitted to optimize their software products without seeking FDA approval upon every iteration—though Patel, who comes to his job with a strong background in business development and technology, is studiously noncommittal on this point.

“We are evolving that space,” he says. “The legacy model is the one we know works. But the model that works continuously—we don’t yet have something to validate that. So the question is [as much] scientific as regulatory: How do you reconcile real-time learning [with] people having the same level of trust and confidence they had yesterday?”

In the meantime, Patel is “hiring like crazy” in an effort to ramp up the FDA’s digital bench strength, according to Christina Farr, a CNBC reporter who covers medical regulation. But attracting the right people has proven difficult, because the field is so hot. As The New York Times reported this week, AI specialists with even minimal experience now are attracting compensation packages of more than $300,000 per year at large tech companies—far more than the FDA can afford to pay.

“Yes, it’s hard to recruit people in AI right now,” Patel acknowledges. “We have some understanding of these technologies. But we need more people. This is going to be a challenge.”

from The Atlantic http://ift.tt/2xl0Sor

[ionecoffman]

How Do You Regulate a Self-Improving Algorithm?

At a large technology conference in Toronto this fall, Anna Goldenberg, a star in the field of computer science and genetics, described how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing medicine. Algorithms based on the AI principle of machine learning now can outperform dermatologists at recognizing skin cancers in blemish photos. They can beat cardiologists in detecting arrhythmias in EKGs. In Goldenberg’s own lab, algorithms can be used to identify hitherto obscure subcategories of adult-onset brain cancer, estimate the survival rates of breast-cancer patients, and reduce unnecessary thyroid surgeries.

It was a stunning taste of what’s to come. According to McKinsey Global Institute, large tech companies poured as much as $30 billion into AI in 2016, with another $9 billion going into AI start-ups. Many people already are familiar with how machine learning—the process by which computers automatically refine an analytical model as new data comes in, teasing out new trends and linkages to optimize predictive power—allows Facebook to recognize the faces of friends and relatives, and Google to know where you want to eat lunch. These are useful features—but pale in comparison to the new ways in which machine learning will change health care in coming years.

The science is unstoppable, and so is the flow of funding. But at least one roadblock stands in the way: a big, bureaucratic Cold War–era regulatory apparatus that could prove to be fundamentally incompatible with the very nature of artificial intelligence.

* * *

Every professional subculture has its heroes. At the Food and Drug Administration, the greatest hero is Frances Oldham Kelsey, who in the 1960s stubbornly refused to license Kevadon, a sedative that alleviated symptoms of morning sickness in pregnant women. As mothers in other countries would learn, the drug—better known by its generic name, thalidomide—could cause horrible birth defects. Kelsey’s vigilance in the face of heavy corporate pressure helped inspire the rigorous evaluation model that the FDA now applies to everything from pharmaceuticals to hospital equipment to medical software.

At the very core of this model is the assumption that any product may be clinically tested, produced, marketed, and used in a defined, unchanging form. That’s why the blood-pressure machines many people use in pharmacies look a lot like the ones they used a decade ago. Deviation from an old FDA-approved model requires an entirely new approvals process, with all the attendant costs and delays.

But that build-and-freeze model isn’t the way AI software development typically works—especially when it comes to machine-learning processes. These systems are essentially meta-algorithms that spit out new operational products every time fresh data is added—producing, in effect, a potentially infinite number of newly minted “medical devices” every day. (A nonmedical example would be the speech-recognition programs that gradually teach themselves how to better understand a user’s voice.) This phenomenon is creating a culture gap between the small, nimble medical-software boutiques creating these technologies, and the legacy regulatory system that developed to serve large corporate manufacturers.

Consider, for instance, Cloud DX: This Canadian company uses AI technology to scrutinize the audio waveform of a human cough, which allows it to detect asthma, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other lung diseases. In April, the California-based XPRIZE foundation named Cloud DX its “Bold Epic Innovator” in its Star Trek–inspired Qualcomm Tricorder competition, whereby participants were asked to create a single device that an untrained person could use to measure their vital signs. The company received a $100,000 prize and lots of great publicity—but doesn’t yet have FDA approval to market this product for clinical applications. And getting such approval may prove difficult.

Which helps explain why many health-software innovators are finding other, creative ways to get their ideas to market. “There’s a reason that tech companies like Google haven’t been going the FDA route [of clinical trials aimed at diagnostic certification],” says Robert Kaul, the founder and CEO of Cloud DX. “It can be a bureaucratic nightmare, and they aren’t used to working at this level of scrutiny and slowness.” He notes that just getting a basic ISO 13485 certification, which acts as a baseline for the FDA’s device standards, can cost two years and seven figures. “How many investors are going to give you that amount of money just so you can get to the starting line?”

“Twenty percent of my company’s head count is devoted exclusively to regulatory issues,” says Vic Gundotra, a former Google executive who now runs a medical company that detects heart issues early. “At Google, sometimes we’d decide on something, and we’d ship it six weeks later. So when I got here, and we had a breakthrough, I’d say, ‘How fast can we ship this out?’ And they’d say, ‘Two years.’ That digital creed of ‘Move fast and break things’ just doesn’t work.”

Kaul is hopeful, because he believes that the FDA contacts he’s garnered through the XPRIZE will help Cloud DX navigate the system. And like everyone I spoke to for this article, he recognizes that the FDA has a necessary role in protecting patients from false claims and dangerous products. He even sees an upside to the agency’s dilatory processes. “For those few companies who do make it through, they have an enormous competitive advantage,” he says. “We won’t have to worry about the usual scenario: Two guys from Stanford in a garage inventing some app that instantly takes away all our business. We only have to worry about the big players—who might just buy us out instead of competing with us.”

* * *

Complaints about the FDA’s lengthy processes are an old story. Five years before becoming Donald Trump’s FDA Commissioner, for instance, Scott Gottlieb slammed the agency for needless delays in the assessment of lifesaving drugs for children afflicted with Hunter syndrome. But the need for reform has become more acute, as software algorithms have become a more critical component of health systems.

WinterLight Labs, a Canadian start-up, is developing machine-learning software that can detect various forms of cognitive impairment, including early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, by analyzing snippets of a patient’s speech. The technology is currently being tested at assisted-care facilities. But Liam Kaufman, the company’s CEO, is unsure whether or when his technology will be ready for FDA approval—in part because it is still unclear whether such approval would require that he freeze his product in a defined state. His alternative plan is to market the product as a screening tool, which does not purport to diagnose the presence of a medical condition, but merely provides guidance about when users should consult a doctor.

The larger risk, many entrepreneurs in the field told me, is not that new AI-enabled health technologies will go completely untapped, but that they will be shunted into the far less regulated sphere of general “wellness,” where they will be marketed as lifestyle products. An example Kaul cites in this regard is the Muse brain-sensing headband, a technology that could be adapted to all sorts of important medical applications, but which currently is being marketed as a gadget to help “elevate your meditation experience.”

Bakul Patel, the new associate center director for digital health at the FDA, has recently launched a pilot program, “FDA Pre-Cert,” which could eventually allow agency officials to focus their inspections on “the software developer or digital-health technology developer, rather than primarily at the product,” according to an announcement. (The nine corporate participants selected for the initial program include Apple, Fitbit, and Samsung, as well as several much smaller companies.) Official public statements seem to imply that these pre-certified companies might one day be permitted to optimize their software products without seeking FDA approval upon every iteration—though Patel, who comes to his job with a strong background in business development and technology, is studiously noncommittal on this point.

“We are evolving that space,” he says. “The legacy model is the one we know works. But the model that works continuously—we don’t yet have something to validate that. So the question is [as much] scientific as regulatory: How do you reconcile real-time learning [with] people having the same level of trust and confidence they had yesterday?”

In the meantime, Patel is “hiring like crazy” in an effort to ramp up the FDA’s digital bench strength, according to Christina Farr, a CNBC reporter who covers medical regulation. But attracting the right people has proven difficult, because the field is so hot. As The New York Times reported this week, AI specialists with even minimal experience now are attracting compensation packages of more than $300,000 per year at large tech companies—far more than the FDA can afford to pay.

“Yes, it’s hard to recruit people in AI right now,” Patel acknowledges. “We have some understanding of these technologies. But we need more people. This is going to be a challenge.”

Article source here:The Atlantic