iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

@abraham.bsky.social Just finished TFOB. Phenomenal.. Huge respect. Thank you..

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It settled into the dead zones again and waited with a patience only a machine could. Switching off and closing down parts of itself that would distract it from waiting. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

140

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

For anyone who has run their own writing through Substack's Pangram scan. I ran a 2020 passage of mine tonight. First pass: 80% AI. Same text, minutes later: 100% human. Then: not enough text. Anyone else seen the score move on identical text? Especially work published before 2022. #AI

000

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The HER chamber made smooth mechanical noises, nothing loose or fake. It was similar to the kind of visual and audio reassurance you got from handling military-grade weapons designed to never fail, never jam. Slipping off the safety made a muted click, not a clang.

100

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Written January 2020. Public on Wattpad since 26 January 2020, under the same handle I use here. Nearly three years before ChatGPT existed. Substack now runs a detector on every Note. I have posted this there too. Score it.

101

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I mailed you a large mail today with prop

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Checks at splice: anchor asserted unique, hash verified against v180 before edit, colour count on the page so blue does not land three times. Provenance: reader suggestion, author decision, recorded before application. That is the whole standard, on one word.

030

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Type: single word substitution, colour. Source: Bluesky reader feedback, an editor, on the WIPSnip of 9 September. Called by the author the same day. Reason: bluish hedged, cobalt decides. Target simile in the next sentence unchanged & logged to the AI flag register as a kept shape.

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

And if anyone is interested, this is the change record I keep. One word, from this thread, logged before it touches the manuscript. v181, Chapter 5. Hit 17 amendment. Anchor: lit from inside by the bluish overflow of server banks that never slept. Before: bluish. After: cobalt.

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Thanks Beverly it’s staying. But being an old IT dude I’m going with Cobalt! Victory for a simile !!

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Great point not not blue as in feeling. That Cobalt blue fits the screen glow better. Thanks for advice!

120

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

That second sentence. I love it & I keep wanting to cut it, because a building forgetting what night meant is exactly the kind of line the tell-hunters circle. I am leaving it in. Posting this before I lose my nerve. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

171

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The science block sat behind a curved wall of dark glass, lit from inside by the bluish overflow of server banks that never slept. It looked like a building that had forgotten what night meant.

120

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

AI paranoia is real. I weigh most sentences now wondering if Pangram will call them machine. It has its own line item with my therapist. Not really kidding.

120

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

That particular one was/is a critical pivot to thier relationship so it was constructed. Sometimes I just write or dictate. Then go back. I prefer to write/speak freely then bring it back.

120

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I’m noodling whether I should create more of an opening scene repeat tick as we jump from Dream (The Faculty), into RL, into GOO (online). Beta feedback was sometime it not clear. Each platform/theatre has a slightly different “where here now”,,,or tie it into opening scene prose more obviously.

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I don’t know yet! If we get that far I’ll let you know!

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

There shouldn’t need to be lawsuits to have an industry agree a proactive standard, process & governance. It’s takes a lot of work.. soundings from writer advocacy groups and publishers. Lawsuits after on claims of following the gov and haven’t. We need a baseline. #publishing #writing #governance

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

"Chain of custody" Accusations are people in panic. A Trader doesn't get accused of making a market. The chain is examined & audited. Look for the parts where it may have been tampered with. A chemist isn't accused of using AI to make drugs, they have mountains of custody records that are checked

120

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

@garethlpowell.bsky.social Just finished JB.. rock solid 10/10 from me. I love the casual tones, intense tech and emotional deep dives and the casual way you deal with time travel. Rich characters and connections to plot are super evident and have reinvigorated me. Ace in hole quote at the end.

130

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Im working on a proper white paper I want to propose to industry

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

His is only the loudest case. publishing, music, art, and the academy, work is tried on suspicion every week. Sentenced by a probability score. Condemned by a crowd. No hearing, no rules, because no field has written any. Accusation has scaled into an industry. The evidence standard never arrived.

210

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

No detector was run. Falade denies using AI, and reportedly had time-stamped drafts and dated notes. There was no standard to weigh them against.

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Yes, & that is the problem. I catch myself flinching at my own craft now. A simile that reframes the emotion after a tense beat is just writing, but it lands on somebody’s tell list, so writers hesitate. That list is endless & the fear is doing more damage than the tools. We need a process..

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Thank you, & yes. Wave 1 is done, so there is something worth showing you at last. Let me get the beta report & what came out of it into a readable shape first, rather than dropping working files on you. What I would value most is your view on the approach rather than the prose.

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

"You," Charlie said, and his tone sharpened. Not kind. Not cruel. Precise. "You don't like this." 🤔 Hmmmmm, three periods close together. I wonder if AI wrote this. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

150

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

It was a little overwhelming at first, you have to let that stuff sit with you and you book ok a quiet room for a while! But once I had sorted it and put it into an approach framework my messed up brain could follow. We did all right. Thanks for asking as always @beverlyjohnson87.bsky.social

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Ahh... Very relevant plot bible item in @FacultyOfMatter, most important. Its called the GOO in the book.

110

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

@garethlpowell.bsky.social Halfway through JB & loving it. Been saving it. Prologue is great, & it makes me feel much better about having one of my own. Favourite scene so far is the tequila one in the cabin. Felt lived in. Treating myself to a read while I breathe before the next wave of edits.

120

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Wave 1 of 5 done. One 30 page beta report from The Spun Yarn just drove a full revision of The Faculty of Matter. 8,000 new words, every note worked or answered. Best money I've spent on this book. #WritingCommunity #amrevising

340

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Abby's fingers pressed more firmly against his shirt. "You don't get to love me like I'm somewhere to hide." #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

240

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

So RealTimeWaster turned its attention to leverage, because chaos without leverage was only weather. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

030

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Wild Moon in Minnesota last evening. Still not sure it’s not a freak of camera.

220

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

It is irritating, I write rule frameworks to stop it doing this. And force the rules read in every chat. Let me answer a bloody question first before giving me another.. hate it

000

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I see these streams all day where people worry about AI. This started with LLMs and wandered across AI. What are you truly lamenting? Take the tech out of the debate for a second, as I am, if you research me truly interested. What’s the issue ? Without mentioning AI. The failed output defined…

000

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The point is not gotcha. It is that the line moved while everyone was arguing about where to draw it, which is why no one should use AI cannot work as policy. Govern it instead. Drafts, timestamps, version history, a disclosure line. Boring, checkable, human.

010

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Fun fact for everyone at war over AI in writing: Microsoft's own documentation calls Editor, the grammar & spelling checker inside Word, an AI-powered service. On by default. Millions of manuscripts have already been through it. Nobody announced it. Nobody voted. #AI #AIwriting #AIgovernance

120

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Do you ever just free-form write and enjoy the white smoke coming from the brain and keyboard? I sense that the more you write and the more books you get through, you're either stopping to use a trusted framework, or the framework is embedded in your brain and comes out as you write?

000

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

At some point, you also have to trust your own writing and sense of where things begin and end.

030

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

It had watched the solar balloons go up over cities and understood what most humans did not: the balloons weren't just light. They were agreement. A visible signature that said, "You will accept the artificial." #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

160

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Both, & the split surprised me. I know where the big ones land before I write, they are structural, the whole book leans toward them. But the small crescendos I never see coming. Those arrive while drafting & they are usually the ones readers quote back to me.

000

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Five categories, plain language, no side taken. Including the one that has been scoring your credit & setting your insurance for twenty years & somehow never comes up. Written in April. carlmfreeman.substack.com/p/nobody-kno...

000

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Every argument about AI in publishing runs aground in the same place. Nobody says which AI they mean. An LLM writing a novel & a screen reader catching typos are not the same technology. Policy that treats them as one thing will get the wrong answer. #AI #amwriting

120

Carl Freeman @gatekeeper0077.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

That is the part writers should fear. A model output became the story & nothing stood behind it. My own pre-2022 prose carries every tell being called evidence this week: negative parallelism, off kilter similes. Style is not proof. Drafts, timestamps & disclosure are.

000