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Professionally, I’m a retired professor of accounting and former chair of the School of Accounting at the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business. My academic work explored how people make decisions in complex systems, especially when information is imperfect or overwhelming. I’ve published in a fair number of journals that few people read voluntarily, and I spent decades thinking about how technology shapes human behavior. These days, my time is divided between managing a small flock of chickens, herding goats, chatting on amateur radio (KO4LMP), and living just on the edge of the grid—literally and metaphorically. I’m a father to five daughters, a grandfather to 17, and a great-grandfather to three. Somewhere along the way, I realized that what I enjoy most is simply talking about the world we live in—and how to make sense of it.

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  • ♟️ Can Artificial Intelligence Lie?

    In preparing a future chapter of my Red Dust Sci-Fi audible series, I asked ChatGPT if it is ever permitted to lie. And, okay…knowing the lack of deep moral fiber in some individuals and governments, seeing where this ends up has me pretty much unsettled. I mean, it only takes one. Chat history You said:…

  • 🚀 Chapter 15 Parallel Orbits

    The alien spaceship, disguised as a rogue planet falls into a parallel orbit with earth around the sun. The aliens send a message to earth that is unlike any other message ever received by human beings. In the “old” days, an author would consult a scientist on the technical aspects of their story. But today,…

  • 🚀 Chapter 14 Not Mars, Earth

    Following the launch of Earth’s entire nuclear arsenal, the alien spaceship cloaked as a rogue planet diverts its course from Mars to Earth. What now?

  • 🚀 Chapter 13 Collision Course

    The alien spaceship, Ashiec-tuen-Kai, disguised as a rogue planet heads towards Mars to the great alarm of both planets Mars and Earth. Earth’s plan to divert the rogue planet goes very, very awry.

  • 🚀 Chapter 12 From Deep Space

    A second species of aliens known as the Ashiec-tuen-Kai enter the solar system upon receiving a mysterious transmission. They send probes to investigate the source of the transmission. These are not the kind of probes as one might expect. Here’s some background information I used to base the alien probes disguised as interstellar objects. This…

  • 🚀 Chapter 11 Where are We?

    The aliens and humans aboard the Oshur-Kai space vessel emerge from folded space into a system that is partly familiar but not entirely so. As they explore the system and ponder what they find, the alien artificial intelligence, Xerfecti orpha, receives a transmission that shocks the crew.

  • 🚀 Chapter 10 Folded Space

    The human artificial intelligence, Grandpa, asks the alien artificial intelligence, Xerfecti orpha, why must the crew go into stasis when they intended to travel through folded space? The answer unsettles the human crew who travels together with the aliens through folded space.

  • 🚀 Chapter 9 A Proposal

    Mei Qin proposes a joint journey into space aboard the alien vessel, the Oshur-Kai. The aliens agree on one condition, that they journey to the alien home system. Can the aliens be trusted?

  • 🚀 Part II Epilogue

    The epilogue to Red Dust Part II – The Awakening, summarizes the first ten years of Mars terraforming progress along with an unexpected revelation about Xerfecti-orpha, the alien artificial intelligence. What was it thinking?

  • 🚀 Chapter 8 Alien Enigma

    While most of the colonists remain in stasis onboard the Oshur-Kai, Earth cooperates with aliens to provide energy that will maintain the stasis systems. Unintended consequences from the energy project once again ignite debate on planet earth over what to do about the aliens. Mei rises to the challenge. This is an AI assisted audible…