true wasteland

Ψάχνοντας νόημα σε ένα χαοτικό κόσμο

[good-advice-ganondorf]

[princejolie]

[yodaprod]

Oldsmobile Incas (1986)

[upstairsdownstairsandinbetween]

Ryabushinsky Mansion, Moscow, Russia,

Photographer: Imli Ran

[chanafehs]

I always have a sick feeling in my stomach when I see people continue to glorify and travel to Dubai knowing exactly how that city runs and how the UAE is profiting off of genocide in Sudan. It’s the same feeling I have looking at people partying in Tel Aviv knowing what is happening just miles away - they should both be treated with the same amount of disgust. Shame the people who glorify that city, shame the people who vacation there, shame the hypocrites who claim to care about Palestine while enjoying stolen gold. Hate the UAE for the same reasons you hate Israel, all genociders should never know a moment of peace.

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

General Motors XP-512G, 1969. An open roadster version of the 512 microcar that was powered by a two-cylinder gasoline engine (hence 512G), giving it a top speed of 72 km/h (45 mph) and a range of approximately 450 km (280 miles). Along with the other commuter concepts, it formed part of GM's "Progress of Power" exhibition in 1969. 

[fredtougas]

Cosmogonics & the death of seasons

[jellobiafrasays]

dover mathematics paperbacks (1953, 1956-1959 eds.)

[sovietpostcards]

The 6th International Youth Festival in Moscow. Delegates from Chili, Mongolia, West Africa, Peru, Norway, India etc. Photos by Arkady Shaikhet (July 1957).

[scipunk]

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

[pusheen]

[ysociety]

[julesdrawz]

A poison team commission

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Morgiana (Juraj Herz, 1972)

[amandla]

AI really inspires such polarized and vehement feelings in people. I’m curious to hear ur guys perception of chatgbt in particular

[rowanellis]

long video essay answer:

tldr(ish) answer:

it might be tempting to see the arguments for and against ai as being for "progress" or being against it, but it isn't that simple.

generative ai is not equivalent to the printing press or calculator or other tech used as examples in these debates.

because these other technologies are not creating (or generating as it were) anything new...

but... in reality... neither is ai...

ai is unique in the fact it is almost always being trained unethically (whether through stolen materials or doubling down on human biases), has environment impacts which are not fully being appreciated or understood by users, and a human cost of labourers on inhumane wages.

you could argue that other tech we use - from clothes to phones - is also bad for the environment and has slave labour in the supply chain... but to my mind this is the first time we KNOW this about the product at the start of it being available. and it's arguably easier to never use a thing than to have started and then have to stop.

and finally there are the arguments for the social and psychological impact it might have - the idea that our brains have a "use it or lose it" way of functioning like our body's muscles - that means if we rely on ai to think, create, and argue for us that we will risk being less able to do so ourselves. the biggest fear being for this to happen with young people who never learn to use those mental muscles at all.

[itsclydebitches]

Something I don't think we talk enough about in discussions surrounding AI is the loss of perseverance.

I have a friend who works in education and he told me about how he was working with a small group of HS students to develop a new school sports chant. This was a very daunting task for the group, in large part because many had learning disabilities related to reading and writing, so coming up with a catchy, hard-hitting, probably rhyming, poetry-esque piece of collaborative writing felt like something outside of their skill range. But it wasn't! I knew that, he knew that, and he worked damn hard to convince the kids of that too. Even if the end result was terrible (by someone else's standards), we knew they had it in them to complete the piece and feel super proud of their creation.

Fast-forward a few days and he reports back that yes they have a chant now... but it's 99% AI. It was made by Chat-GPT. Once the kids realized they could just ask the bot to do the hard thing for them - and do it "better" than they (supposedly) ever could - that's the only route they were willing to take. It was either use Chat-GPT or don't do it at all. And I was just so devastated to hear this because Jesus Christ, struggling is important. Of course most 14-18 year olds aren't going to see the merit of that, let alone understand why that process (attempting something new and challenging) is more valuable than the end result (a "good" chant), but as adults we all have a responsibility to coach them through that messy process. Except that's become damn near impossible with an Instantly Do The Thing app in everyone's pocket. Yes, AI is fucking awful because of plagiarism and misinformation and the environmental impact, but it's also keeping people - particularly young people - from developing perseverance. It's not just important that you learn to write your own stuff because of intellectual agency, but because writing is hard and it's crucial that you learn how to persevere through doing hard things.

Write a shitty poem. Write an essay where half the textual 'evidence' doesn't track. Write an awkward as fuck email with an equally embarrassing typo. Every time you do you're not just developing that particular skill, you're also learning that you did something badly and the world didn't end. You can get through things! You can get through challenging things! Not everything in life has to be perfect but you know what? You'll only improve at the challenging stuff if you do a whole lot of it badly first. The ability to say, "I didn't think I could do that but I did it anyway. It's not great, but I did it," is SO IMPORTANT for developing confidence across the board, not just in these specific tasks.

Idk I'm just really worried about kids having to grow up in a world where (for a variety of reasons beyond just AI) they're not given the chance to struggle through new and challenging things like we used to.

[sailorsenshigifs]