Just when I thought I was done with it forever, back to topics in Digital Humanities I go. Surely differences in generational attitudes towards AI art is something someone in a DH department has been diving deep on these days…

‘Ordinary’ is doing a lot of work here. I can think of a lot of ordinary people I’ve met who hate AI art. Seems more accurate to say that not everyone is put off by it.

Does seem to be a generational element though, with older generations not caring as much. Case in point is one of the pinball places here. The owner’s been an AI art enthusiast for a while, younger folks hate it to the point that they’ll actively avoid the place, the older ‘I was a pinball wizard in the 80s’ crowd don’t seem as bothered.

You can also do it the other way, and call out Mastodon users from Lemmy.

I did that to Jason Scott once, though I think he was less than happy about it. I was just shocked it worked.

I simultaneously think it’s fucked, and I can immediately think of people in my life where this’d be harm reduction.

I’ll speak directly to the last question: if you use AI as a means to generate ‘creative’ output (see: ideas on various topics/themes stolen from other folks), improv will likely help with learning to think on your feet and confidence in expressing yourself with reference just to the electrical impulses in your own noggin.

But I don’t think that alone is sufficient to fix a truly ‘AI-rotted brain’, which I take to mean a mind that reaches for easy answers and shortcuts. That’s a bigger project, and there’s a lot of good comments here and on your other post in that vein.

I don’t know your IRL circumstances, but a project idea for you: take a walk around the place you live with a notepad. Write down every question you have about any old stuff that catches your fancy/strikes you as weird (probably a good idea to take pictures too). Try and find the answers to those questions without using AI - instead, talk to a librarian, send an email to your local historical society, etc. etc. Ask for resources about the topic in question. Bonus points if you take that info and make something creative with it - a poem, a short story about someone contemporary to the thing you’re curious about, one act play, interpretive dance, whatever.

Like this for you simply because, depending on where you live and what catches your fancy, there may not be that much info fed into an AI database, but there could totally be a book/collection in an archive/knowledgeable person who’d be happy to chat about it.

This may set the groundwork for an uncomfortable discussion of your parents’ personal life these days.

[Said, obviously, not knowing the condition of your parents]

And for me (just to illustrate individual difference, do what works for you my friend), over time the dosage window that’s pro-social gets narrower and narrower, to the eventual point that a one-hitter induces muteness that’s only overcome if alcohol’s added to the equation. Switching up strains helps for a bit, but eventually ends up the same way.

Actually find I’m way better at socialization when no weed is involved at all these days. Do wonder how much of my social issues around weed are chemical v. behavioural - seems to make sense that if most of your smoking time is spent zoning out to the TV, or even just quietly locked in doing chores, that behaviour might carry over in other settings. But idk.

QUIET

Oh fuck they said it, HIT THE DECK!!!

IMO It’s some pretty dubious stuff, but you may find stuff about The Global Consciousness Project interesting.

Well that’s the point, you’re not supposed to, no matter how well it’s crafted or warm it is.

Gotta keep your comfy q***ts on the d/l.

There’s a word - starts with Q, ends with T. It is never to be uttered with regard to work conditions, ever.

Yes. One person in particular comes to mind - very nice guy, but has some obvious learning disabilities. He mispronounces words very often and mistates stuff frequently (a lot of ‘hims is’, that kind of thing). He doesn’t seem to have much of an inner life, though perhaps its more that he doesn’t have the facility with language to express himself well. He also doesn’t seem to understand a lot of things that people around him talk about.

But he’s a kind dude - frankly, that’s the important bit imo.

Most of the other folks I’ve met and considered dumb were seen only for limited duration and in specific contexts. They might indeed be, on the whole, dumb. But I’ve always felt those small interactions aren’t enough evidence of that - after all, I’ve met objectively brilliant people that, in certain contexts, have done phenomenally dumb things. Heck, we all do (or rather, I sure as fuck have).

I have a soft spot for Creed sometimes, but it’s not exactly like they disprove this statement.

Edit: huh, apparently they aren’t a Christian rock band. Could’ve fooled me.

For demonstration of this theory, see Pink Flamingos

My father referred to me as ‘almost 40’ the other day, which I deemed rude so I called him ‘almost 60’, which he also deemed rude.

I think the unspoken part here is the frame of reference used when defining what the norm actually is. Something your family does that you also do can be considered normal in that context, but abnormal in your wider community. Something people in your community do (Mennonites driving horse and buggies comes to mind) might be considered normal in that context, but abnormal within the broader society that community exists in relation with.

So someone could be doing something they consider to be normal that, from a broader or different perspective, would be abnormal. And it’s usually exposure to that outside/broader position that characterizes behaviour you’d consider normal as abnormal - it’s exposure to a different frame of reference for normalcy.

Yay semantics!

How I do it: Make text, create a new background layer, make the same text but slightly bigger in the colour you want your outline to be, align background text as needed. Save as .png and import into new image if you’re looking to add the outlined text to somewhere else (though I suppose you can just merge layers, I do my crap in fits and spurts so I often prefer having the little pieces as discrete files so it’s easier to come back to it. Also I’ve fucked up and merged when I probably shouldn’t have a LOT).

Takes some futzing about for sure but that’s part of the fun for me.

Edit: Super shitty outline done just by doing the same font size bolded in black. Can obviously be done much better but you’ll get the idea.

Careful now. First couple hits of photography are cheap. Then you’ll want new lenses, and eventually find yourself becoming semi-pro to feed your new addiction.

THANK YOU.

You know another fun thing that can happen? A doctor moves practices and changes fax numbers, and the old number gets assigned to a new, completely unrelated non-medical group. But no one told the medical entity that sends faxes, and no one updated the relevant records. All of a sudden several months worth of PHI has been getting sent to a women’s clothing store.

Fax in the medical field needs to die. Between the possibility of this happening, higher probability of transmission failure, paper (where offices are still using physical faxes) getting misplaced before getting filed in charts, etc., it’s just a plain bad way to send medical information in 2026.

Edit: OH, and don’t get me started on fancy, marketing-designed lab reports that use colored indicators to communicate treatment-critical information that no one checked for legibility in black and white, yet still get sent by fax. Like, fucking WHAT??