Another dose of woolgathering as I attempt to gather my thoughts on the dystopian world we live in, and how the hell I, and we, are supposed to live in it. 10-15 minutes' read, apparently. scribbles.malcolmfcross.com/living-under...

lol you’ve got an AI girlfriend?? ur putting techbros in charge of your relationship??? ok buddy lmfao ok champ

and part 2 docseuss.medium.com/does-art-say...

Now, as some people have pointed out, art DOES say things, even when you're not trying to. It can communicate falsehoods about the way the world works, so you MUST be responsible with your art. anyways you should read both of these part 1: docseuss.medium.com/should-art-s...

should art say things?

Sometimes, something like this occurs: The Division 2 gets announced, it’s set in Washington, D.C., and a games critic hears that the…

docseuss.medium.com

When I was writing my essays on the politics of art, I noticed how many people were talking a slogan about women having access to credit cards (the personal is the political) and trying to turn that into "all works of art must advocate for a political position" which is nonsense

open all borders. stop having them be closed 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@dov.bsky.social · yesterday

Before anything else I think that's arrogant. Who are you to tell me to make my fantasy political

When you are hurt by something, when you have good reason to fear it, it is natural to fall into black and white thinking about that thing. Overreacting is natural, because part of you has learned from that hurt that the risk of failing to react is far greater than the risk of reacting wrongly. (🧵)

After Channel 4's 'The Great ADHD Myth?' aired last night, we gathered some experts to review just how wrong it got things. @robinince.bsky.social chats to Camilla Pang, @ginarippon.bsky.social, @drdeanburnett.bsky.social & @thepublicturner.bsky.social Full chat on The Incomplete Shambles Podcast.

When you are hurt by something, when you have good reason to fear it, it is natural to fall into black and white thinking about that thing. Overreacting is natural, because part of you has learned from that hurt that the risk of failing to react is far greater than the risk of reacting wrongly. (🧵)

Going to weigh in here with some personal stuff. My son is diagnosed autistic. It made a world of difference because his school had to make accommodations that allowed him to actually cope and learn there, rather than be categorised as "naughty" in an escalating round of attempted control that

Jack@jackinpogform.bsky.social · yesterday

Funny innit? The risk of misdiagnosing a single neurotypical person is worth dragging each and every ND person back to the 90s where they were 'difficult,' 'thick' or 'disruptive'

Before you can sell GenAI to anyone, they have to be able to make something with it they can sell. Before you can sell something you made with GenAI, you need to convince the GenAI output-interested customer that they can't get it from the same GenAI. There's no feasible business here.

jess m. 🌤️@jametc.bsky.social · 2d ago

haha yes it will. let me explain AI will fall out of favour because no company wants to pay token money for something that no customers will touch. The costs of operating will only keep going up exponentially for these AI services. Those who remain using it won't be enough to float that expense

haha yes it will. let me explain AI will fall out of favour because no company wants to pay token money for something that no customers will touch. The costs of operating will only keep going up exponentially for these AI services. Those who remain using it won't be enough to float that expense

Helena Brown@hellmark.org · 2d ago

I don't think AI is going the way of past tech things like NFTs, but I really do not think they're going to be where it is so ever present until they can have cheaper cloud compute or local processing. I don't see either of those things happening any time soon.

I'm gutted. Stolen in Baltimore area; CC has already contacted police (there were other items stolen from their workshop + their neighbors), and is generally doing what they can. All I can say right now is... Keep an eye out. Thanks all.

Clockwork Creature@clockworkcreature.bsky.social · 3d ago

Hey, so our workshop got broken into over the weekend. Most of what was stolen was just replaceable stuff, but one very precious mask was taken. Tierney's head has been stolen. If anyone sees this head anywhere, let us know immediately. Hoping against hope that we can bring her home.

One of French puppeteer Raphaël Gromy’s most recognizable performances features a puppet painting real artworks on canvas, blending puppetry, live performance, and visual art into a unique theatrical experience. 😊 IG: @artistsuniversum @raphael_gromy

AI RANT Following the cancellation of three major debut book deals over AI suspicions, I decided to put my own (needless to say, 100% human-written) prose to the test. My detector of choice was Originality AI, and the results proved to be jarring, to say the least. 🧵1/5

@quebecoiswolf.bsky.social Pssst - Someone pointed me at Virtues of a Chevalier, while discussing the artful use of repetition/leitmotif-esque phrases in writing. It's pretty darn good! And, y'know. Thought I should tell you I found it pretty darn good. (Linked below, for curious observers.)

WEREWOLVES VERSUS: FASHION by Angela Quinton

argylewerewolf.itch.io

Exclusive: A rare bookseller suspected his books were being bought by AI companies. He stuck an AirTag in a book and we tracked it to a secretive Amazon facility in Las Vegas where they scan and destroy books called VGT3: www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

404media.co

Literally one of the best to ever do it. Up there with Larson, Watterson, and Breathed

beetle moses@beetlemoses.bsky.social · 4d ago

Words from James Baldwin, written 62 years ago, still remain the best moral compass towards understanding the whole tragic Jason Arday affair.

Was having a conversation on this topic just recently. A book (or story or painting or movie or whatever) is not a puzzle with a Correct Solution. It's an experience to think about and with, to chew over and then bring to other experiences.

Chaucer Doth Tweet@levostregc.bsky.social · 5d ago

Writinge about literature ys not undirstondinge a booke completelye and then sayinge somethinge clever. It ys, by contrast, failinge agayne and agayne to undirstonde a booke completelye and makinge the moost descryptive notes possible about the resultes. Meaninge ys a process, not a schoolboy prize.

Actually, one more - I feel like I should say this directly, so here goes. In the 90s and 00s, the groups I remember pursuing this strategy (hyperpublicize mugshots, Black crime statistics, etc) were Stormfront, the Klan, etc. Now it's the New York Times and the Telegraph. That is the story here.

Plenty to reflect about re: the Arday affair, but I'm going to repeat this one thing. The playbook the right used here is effective even though it's not especially sophisticated, as it relies on the audience to do the dirty work. I've been calling it "Trojan horse propaganda", let's go with that. 1/

Conclusion to a thread well worth reading in full. Lack of this was painfully evident in a book I recently read about a 1910s-1940s 'Society' hostess. Clearly, lots of research. Written up in a disjointed, repetitive chronology with a couple of 'themed' chapters stuck on the end. So frustrating.

Kate Watson@loreandordure.com · 2mo ago

Tl;dr: Non-fiction writing is storytelling, it is story *crafting*; it is creative and imaginative and requires a serious command of craft, at least as much, if not more so, as fiction writing does.

Just as a matter of interest, *any* use of AI in scholarly writing is tantamount to plagiarism. You don’t know whose work the AI has trained on, so you can’t give them proper acknowledgment or make an appropriate citation.

Only dipped a toe into Planetside 2 myself but this anecdote is fascinating

RadiantHostility (he/him)@radianthostility.bsky.social · 5d ago

Back in Planetside 2 this drove the Terran Republic faction, ie the proto-alt-right, *berserk*. All the Vanu (purple and teal alien worshipping spandex clad weirdos) outfits had flat hierarchy and highly flexible tactical organization. Meanwhile the fascists united behind one charismatic leader.

Holy shit that made me jump. Just got one of those emergency alerts from the government on my phone, advising about risk of wildfires.

TLDR; Read more for longer stints. Ironically and interesting read about brain and memory health!

Betty C. Jung@bettycjung.bsky.social · 6d ago

Harvard Scientists Studied 200 Aging Brains for a Decade — One Daily Habit Made All the Difference Once this brain chemical stays suppressed long enough, you lose far more than focus — your brain begins shrinking at a structural level. ibetterwithin.substack.com/p/harvard-sc...

CN - suicide So this seems like a leap, stay with me, but in arguments like this I always think about how the most common method of committing suicide in England in the 1950s, particularly for women, was to simply put your head in the oven and turn the gas on.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 6d ago

What you rubes don’t get is that these people were already stalkers and that they were only caught because they used Flock to stalk someone.

Are you tired of having to double take everything you see online because it might be fake AI slop? Get ready to double take your own photos because they may be fake AI slop.