"Life needs things to live"

sapphic ace | late 20s | disaster human

[fluffyblue-multifandommess]

oh my GODS

[goodluckdetective]

So Hank Green got caught using AI and it’s a whole huge blow up, and I really don’t have much interest in adding to the pile on.

However, I do think this case is great example of what happens when smart people decide they can use these systems “responsibly.”

Let’s put aside the plagiarism and the energy use for a second (not that these don’t matter, but they’re not relevant to my point at the moment) and pretend these systems were made with entirely properly obtained info and ran on only solar, but otherwise were entirely the same. If you’re a person, you might think “okay, I’m going to only use this to come up with ideas for my next paper: I’m going to do all the research myself and the writing, I’m just gonna brainstorm topics.”

The thing is, even if you’re trying to limit use to just “brainstorming” the chatbot isn’t going to limit itself to just brainstorming. You might ask it “what should I write about involving Greek history” and it may suggest “the plague of Athens” but it’s also going to suggest some “basic info” on the plague of Athens that you might end up picking up and deciding your topic is. It’s going to provide you with “research.” And even if you decide to check that research yourself, that’s still setting you down a specific path you might not have picked organically.

And speaking of double checking its “research”, fact checking is a time heavy process. Not only now do you have to read the original text the bot provided, but you also have to compare it line by line with the summary the bot provided. That’s more time than it would have taken to just read the article by itself. And with any time heavy task, people are going to get lazy. And in original research being lazy might mean skimming a paper or an abstract, chatbots allow you to be lazy without looking at the article at all.

And soon enough, despite telling yourself you were only going to use it for brainstorming, you have offloaded topic generation, research and eventually even drafting because that’s what these bots are intended to do. They are not meant to serve as research tools or help brainstorm or serve as a bouncing off board: they are built to encourage maximum engagement. And that means if you go at them with the best of ethical intentions, they are built to tempt you to use them as much as possible, regardless of whatever line you drew in the sand for yourself.

Anyway, my main thought here is you are not smart enough to outwit the dopamine machine. It wants your attention and nothing more. Do not assume you can resist just because you know what’s under the hood.

[goodluckdetective]

Whenever you decide to use a tool, you should consider “what is this tool designed to do” and for LLM’s that answer is “maximize user engagement.” Anything else is in service to that goal.

[goodluckdetective]

My read of this came from Hank’s own response to the situation which you can find here. I’ve screenshotted the part in particular that drew my attention and spawned this post below:

Obvs, Hank’s situation is not the same as the scenario I laid out but I think the snippet above gets back to my main point which is these tools are built to encourage interaction and that’s a hard thing to avoid, regardless of intentions.

Some other notes:

1. As stated, I don’t bring this up to add to a pile on, just to use this as an example of something I’ve seen happen with folks trying to engage in this tech with an ethical framework. This is because-

2. Frankly, I think shame is a shit motivator. I bring all this up to try to draw attention to something I find under discussed which is what these LLMS are meant to do, and what they are advertised for which are often very separate lists. (I didn’t even get into how they’re meant to train off user data but that’s another can of worms). If you want to discourage AI use, it’s a far better strategy to listen to why the person is engaging with AI and then address that reason.

3. I don’t want to come off as someone trying to scare folks that they’ll get addicted just by touching the stuff: my point is merely that is it critical to know what something is made for before engaging with it. This actually goes for a lot of tech besides AI like Google or social media (which are also designed to 1. Capture your attention and 2. Show you advertisements). AI isn’t a special kind of evil in this way, merely a continuation of a tech trend where a product is sold to a consumer with the goal of the time of the consumer becoming the source of revenue.

4. I have book recs on this topic. As you can guess, this is an academic interest of mine. But that’s another post if folks are interested.

[houndmother]

is it a natural and innate part of humanity or is it some shit they made up in europe

[houndmother]

this is about the colonial enforcement of gender among many other things

[fluffyblue-multifandommess]

Is it a big deal if a radio announcer/TV host/guest thereof says swear words?

American continents (not US) - Yes, it will/may get bleeped/cut out

American continents (not US) - No, they may apologise but it won't be bleeped/cu

Europe - Yes, it will/may get bleeped/cut out

Europe - No, they may apologise but it won't be bleeped/cut

Afria - Yes, it will/may get bleeped/cut out

Africa - No, they may apologise but it won't be bleeped/cut

Asia - Yes, it will/may get bleeped/cut out

Asia - No, they may apologise but it won't be bleeped/cut

Oceania - Yes, it will/may get bleeped/cut out

Oceania - No, they may apologise but it won't be bleeped/cut

Not applicable in my language.

I'm in the US where swear words will be bleeped/cut

Remaining time: 6 days 4 hours

Sorry there's not much room for nuance, I wanted to divide this by continent so that limited the options. Please feel free to expand on your response in the tags!

[samreich]

🎙️ this podcast does not exist: attention span 🔍

[only-tiktoks]

[swagpaws]

[VD: A TikTok titled "My 10 favorite (inexpensive) holiday gift ideas for the blind & visually impaired." The first clip shows a person pointing up at the title as they voice-over: "These are my ten most favourite gifts for the blind and visually impaired".

The following items are demonstrated in the video and described in the voice-over:

1. Assorted bump dots - Various kinds of stickers with protruding dots on them that can be put onto appliances to make them more tactile.

2. Pocket money brailler - A device that allows you to imprint braille onto paper notes, indicating their value.

3. Liquid level indicator - A device hung on the edge of a container with metal prongs that detect when liquid has reached it.

4. Braille Pop-It - A pop-it with the alphabet in braille on each bubble.

5. Tactile Rubik's cube - A rubik's cube with unique textures for each color.

6. Braille color clothing tags - Tags with braille to indicate what colour a piece of clothing is.

7. Signature guide - A card with a rectangular slit in it to guide the user when writing their signature.

8. Low vision playing cards - Cards with very large and colorful numbers on them.

9. Pop-A-Cell - A plastic card with 6 bubbles you can indent to practice braille characters.

10. Talking keychain clock - A clock that says the time aloud when you press a button.

End VD.]

[swagpaws]

rbing again to boost my description! please make sure to rb this with a description! its a bit painfully ironic to see a video about blind people without a description... yknow, so visually impaired people can access it

[teaboot]

My boss has a new boss who's been dropping in to check on how different sites are doing and I keep introducing her to the clients by going "This is Hank. Hank, this is my boss's boss, she's very important, please tell her nice things about me" and that's my big Autistic secret to professional networking. Letting them think you're funny

[teaboot]

Other fun Professional Hacks:

"Networking" doesn't have to feel like one big huge façade of manipulation and lies. You just find people you like. The things you talk about don't even have to be related, you just gotta find people who you like working with who you might reach out to for questions or projects later.

You don't need to look professional and respectable or like a "real" adult. I like to just show up and make it clear I'm receptive to jokes and quirks and weird ideas, and the people who vibe with that usually come to me.

Introduce people you like to other people you like. Talk them up. You can tell your boss "This is Mike he kicks ass, he knows everything about this place, if you want to know something talk to him, if he ever quits we're stealing him"

I found can't think of a polite or socially normal way to say something, sometimes you can just say it like "I don't know if this is dumb or not but I don't know anything about this. Can you explain what you mean?", or "I was taught something different. Should I change how I've been doing it?". I've never had a negative reaction to this.

When in doubt, ask a weird question. "What's your favorite dessert food" is a p good one. Sometimes folks think I'm childish but at least they know what they're getting into and they know I'm not judging them.

Sometimes when higher-ups approach me with a stiff upper lip I'll test the waters with a "is your job as insane as it sounds" or something similar to remind them that I, a worker performing a role, and speaking to them, a worker performing a role. If they give a stiff and measured answer I stay distant and professional. If their performance cracks and their tone changes or they smile or laugh or give a funny reply I know I can relax and joke a bit too.

I still don't enjoy business stuff outside of the most basic day to day duties of my job and conventions n shit are still pretty draining but learning that other people are also following a script and the performance has room for "yes-and" type improv has helped a lot

[pukicho]

Just saw the odyssey in Imax, good stuff. But when they stab the cyclops in the eye, I think it makes what’s quite possibly the loudest sound ever invented. Some sort of elephant mixed with a tornado siren. And it’s set in a massive cave, so it reverberates for minutes. Loud!

[myrdin92]

I heard that it was actually loud enough to damage people's ear drums, which seems a bit excessive to be honest

[fluffyblue-multifandommess]

it is not that hard to look at someone's bio, jesus fucking christ.

[thoodleoo]

i know i said i did not want to talk about the nolan odyssey but i do have one more nodyssey post in me. i actually think the idea of odysseus understanding his story as existing both in and out of a historic timeframe is a fun way to handle the liminality caused by the story being part of an extensive oral tradition. however having him say "our age of bronze is collapsing" is perhaps not the way i would have done that

[treecitysessions]

[mclennonyaoi]

reading this deposition that just got dropped where someone sued musk and ohhhh my god it is this funniest thing ever . i can see why his lawyer tried to keep this confidential . they’re both maybe the biggest idiots . this is like ace attorney

[mclennonyaoi]

Elon Musk Didn’t Want His Latest Deposition Released. Here It Is.

Musk is being sued for falsely suggesting a 22-year-old Jewish man was part of a neo-Nazi brawl.

Elon Musk Deposed In Lawsuit For Falsely Linking Jewish Man To Neo-Nazi Brawl

Elon Musk was deposed in a recent lawsuit for falsely linking a 22-year-old Jewish man to a neo-Nazi brawl. Musk, who attempted to keep the

PLEASE read this

[mclennonyaoi]

[mclennonyaoi]

[mclennonyaoi]

[mclennonyaoi]

bankston is my HERO he’s tearing these people apart

[mclennonyaoi]

damn

[mclennonyaoi]

HE LEFT

[mclennonyaoi]

????

[mclennonyaoi]

oh my god

[mclennonyaoi]

KILL HIM

[mclennonyaoi]

he is DONE.

[mclennonyaoi]

HELP ME .

[mclennonyaoi]

wow. ok.

[mclennonyaoi]

[mclennonyaoi]

genuinely first two pages he says that he thinks ben’s lawyer is the one who is actually suing him and admits he has no clue what the lawsuit is about .

[mclennonyaoi]

doing a reread now this is so cunty

[mclennonyaoi]

goddamn .

[cryptotheism]

fun fact: the Mr. Bankston here is Mark Bankston, the same lawyer who absolutely ruined Alex Jones during the Sandy Hook trial.

[ex-libris-craux]

how in the fuck did the muskrat's attorney pass the bar

[ruffboi-mags]

Mark Bankston is gonna make me fucking SWOON.

[bemusedlybespectacled]

I don't think Mark can ever top "INDEED, MR. JONES, INDEED" and "AND THAT IS HOW I KNOW YOU LIED TO ME" from the first Sandy Hook trial in Texas (not to be confused with Chris Mattei, the attorney in the Connecticut trial), but this part

MR. SPIRO: Do you give these lectures at all of your depositions? MR. BANKSTON: I do, and you can watch them.

is ESPECIALLY hilarious to me having listened to multiple depositions Mark has had to take in the Sandy Hook case, where he has needed to lecture EVERY. SINGLE. ATTORNEY. at some point in the case about how they're violating Texas Rule XYZ, because they all, to a one, did something seriously ethically questionable during the deposition.

like, YOU CAN WATCH/LISTEN TO HIS DEPOS. HE DOES HAVE TO GIVE THOSE LECTURES EVERY TIME. IT'S NOT EVEN A JOKE.

[aristoteliancomplacency]

If you want to listen to the deposition highlights in the Texas case with commentary from the world expert on Alex Jones, listen to the episodes of the podcast Knowledge Fight labelled ‘formulaic objections’ (I think there are about 16 in total). Highly recommend.

[pangur-and-grim]

it is weird that celiac stuff has become part of the 'culture war'. because it's literally just a medical thing.... I get super anemic unless I cut a certain protein out of my diet, because it bulldozes the villi in my intestines. but if I post about it, right-wingers send me gore images. I guess you can't expect shitty people to be logical, but I've even heard lefty people make fun of gluten stuff, and it's like why are you mad about this??? why are you pissed off that I'm eating bread that doesn't taste as good so that I can have blood in my body? it's so morally neutral.

[ms-demeanor]

I'm sorry, I know you weren't actually looking for an explanation but I always have a rant about this locked and loaded.

As far as I can tell the reasons that this happens are:

The interpretation of disability accommodation as wokeness - a lot of the same people who are shitty about food limitations are also shitty about sign language interpreters and ramp requirements (also building regulations relating to the latter) because they view any accommodation as capitulation to a group they think should "suck it up and deal with it" (quietly exist without named or obvious accommodations). The conversations around peanut-free or milk-free classrooms to accommodate children with allergies are similarly unhinged and possibly more horrifying.

Conflating specialty diets as a result of proximity in the popular consciousness - you're a lot more likely to see something described as "vegan + gluten free" or to see vegan/vegetarian/g-free options grouped on menus than you are to see keto/vegan/gfree options so the "lefty" animal-free diets get grouped with gluten-free (it's also interesting that there are right-wing diets, and I wonder how many of these people remember when you used to be able to find "atkins-friendly" symbols on casual dining restaurant menus)

Gluten free diets became a fad fifteen years ago; tons of people read "Wheat Belly" and stopped eating wheat as a weight loss hack and when they went back to eating wheat because it's actually pretty difficult to get around a major staple grain they didn't experience any negative consequences; people saw this and basically think that it's a trend, that people are faking medically necessary diets as part of a fad. When questioned about this they always go "but, I mean, it's okay if you REALLY need to skip the wheat because you have a condition but most people are doing it because it's popular" when g-free diets haven't been a major trend for quite a while now. TO BE QUITE FAIR, I think that things like "Gluten Aware" cookies and beer and such, which contain a little gluten but not NO gluten contribute to this perception (these have annoyed me forever for two reasons: 1. They make people without celiac think that a little gluten is fine for people with celiac, which it is not; 2. fucking commit, companies. *I* want the cookies and beer and it's deeply annoying that these business will go to the lengths to create products with minimal gluten but won't actually make g-free foods - this is often because of the risk of cross contamination, they won't claim to make g-free things because they won't work with a dedicated g-free facility)

Anyway, in conclusion: it sucks, I'm sorry.

The fun flipside of this is that I've seen people who are more right wing become aggressively pro regulation and pro accommodation when they or their family members have to suddenly take on the individual burden of making up for a society that doesn't include them by default.

[ms-demeanor]

US specific:

Is your ham made with vinegar? Does your ham have the generic word "spices" on the ingredient list? Does your ham include "smoke flavoring"? Does your ham include caramel coloring?

Because malt vinegar has gluten in it. "Spices" may include wheat products in a mix. Smoke flavoring may be made with barley flour. Caramel coloring may be made with wheat or barley syrup.

If the label says "gluten free" that means that the "spices," caramel coloring, vinegar, and smoke flavor are certified to contain 20ppm or less of gluten.

If the ham is cured in any way, it may include gluten. If the ham was marinated, it probably includes gluten. If the ham was prepared in a facility that processes wheat in any way, it might be cross contaminated with gluten.

There's a company out there called "Gluten Free Water" that makes water in plastic bottles, poking fun at the idea that too many things have a gluten free label. I fucking hate that company. Because that company is functionally saying "lol, people are so sensitive and over the top about this, let's be a little silly and laugh about how crazy people can be with their 'gluten free' nonsense."

Did you know that there are sustainable food containers and straws that contain wheat? And that you don't have to label them? There are definitely people with celiac who have been sickened by biodegradable plastic straws in their "obviously water is gluten free there's no risk here" water.

"It's over-labeled so it looks trendy" just means you don't know how foods are made or what foods contain gluten. Gluten is ridiculously common in foods in general, and also in packaged meats.

Your ham has to say gluten free because it distinguishes it from the hams that do contain gluten, which is a fucking lot of them. And you're annoyed that your ham has to say gluten free and I'm annoyed that I'm standing in the grocery store calling a ham company to figure out where they source their caramel coloring so I can figure out if the damned ham is safe to eat.

"lol, oats don't have wheat in them, are people so stupid that they have to be told what is and isn't wheat? why does this oatmeal have a gluten free label?" Cross contamination; gluten free oats are not grown near wheat and are not processed in facilities that process wheat.

"lol, rice doesn't have wheat in it, why is this rice labeled gluten free, all rice is gluten free" Cross contamination; the rice isn't processed on equipment that processes wheat.

"lol why does this turkey breast say gluten free, it's just fucking turkey" read the ingredients on your "just" turkey, lots of packaged meat is packed in broth, some of which contains modified food starch, which may contain wheat.

"lol why are these strawberries labeled gluten free? they're fucking strawberries" WAX, BUDDY. SOME FRUITS ARE COATED IN PRESERVATIVE WAX FILMS BY THE MANUFACTURER AND SOME OF THOSE FUCKING FILMS CONTAIN GLUTEN.

I think that part of the reason that people are so irritated by g-free labels is because it exposes them to just how vast and alienating their food systems are.

"Ham should just be meat from a pig, maybe with sugar and salt; what on earth is happening that there might be wheat in that process? Nothing in that process should involve wheat." And then you might have to think about it for a second, might have to wonder what "sugar" and "salt" mean when someone is producing a million hams to be delivered thousands of miles away. It's not just sugar and salt; it's preservatives and nitrates and batch cooking and getting corn syrup instead of sugar and getting smoke flavoring instead of smoking the ham and turning your "whole food" into all the ingredients that make up the ingredients that make up the ingredients.

A "gluten free" label says "you can eat this" to somebody with celiac disease, who has already pounded their skull against the shittiness of the medical system and the food system.

But to someone who doesn't have to worry that their food is going to disable them, a "gluten free" sticker on ham takes a known quantity and turns their sandwich into a hyperobject that contains animal agriculture and industrial additive production and shipping pollution and the ongoing assault on regulation.

If it doesn't have the label, you can just eat your lunch. If it does have the label, you are haunted by the specter of RFK junior imploding the FDA.

Turns out that everyone in the US with celiac is already constantly haunted by the possible implosion of the FDA because food regulation is an up-close and personal part of our daily lives that most people would rather not think about.

[lastoneout]

Gluten free food is also for people like me who have wheat allergies and that's why it's so frustrating that so many gluten free options will use oat flour or now even de-glutenized wheat flour and just not say they do because well actually, it's only for people with celiac, so surely it's fine to put the wheat or oats or rye or barley back in, just so long as you make sure to remove the gluten!

Gluten free chips ahoy and oreos? Oat flour. Canyon Bakehouse, the only gluten free bread brand that actually resembles bread? Oat flour. And then if I do find truly wheat free food it's also vegan or low carb/salt/fat/calories/ect. and it's genuinely not even worth eating. I'm already on the verge of starvation constantly because even gluten free food isn't safe for me to eat half the time, them removing all the nutrients just means that people like me get to eat health food garbage, if we can eat at all. Even gluten free food isn't always safe, and so if you thought people with celiac were limited in their options people with wheat allergies are just straight up fucked.

It's REALLY fucking important for food makers to actually label what the fuck they put in their food because sometimes people have weird allergies that they need accommodated, and it really sucks to be treated like I'm taking part in a fad diet when I'm just trying to EAT at all and half the time the food labeled as being for me isn't even safe for me to eat.

[ms-demeanor]

Various brands of salt use anti-caking agents that may contain gluten or may be a cross contamination risk.

[ms-demeanor]

Worth noting that I'm also allergic to corn and sesame and have a non-celiac wheat allergy so I'm playing this game on expert difficulty - there are some folks in the notes who are talking about being lifelong g-free and not knowing some of this stuff and the reason I know all of this stuff is because wheat is in a ton of stuff but corn is in *everything* and if something is corn and wheat free there's a good chance it's got sesame in it.

[rainbow-femme]

Bro they got geep in Ohio

[fluffyblue-multifandommess]

[ID: News video captioned quote. Rary baby 'Geep' born in Ohio. Unquote. The video preview is a young mammal which we can guess is a crossbreed of a sheep and a goat based on its appearance and the title of the video.]

Here's the short video of baby geep!

[feyburner]

99% of fanfiction is absolute dogshit bathwater and that’s beautiful, I love that, I love that the barrier for entry is nonexistent, I love that anyone can do it, I love all the badly written porn, I love that it’s just creation for creation’s sake, I love it. Except when it’s something I’m into. When it’s something I’m into, then I’m gonna need everyone to step it up.

[phantomrose96]

I'm a broken record to say "this is a good joke" because in fact all the Among Us jokes are good.

But "species of creature where all of them are drawn as 100% identical models, but in universe amongst themselves one of them is considered far and away the hot one" is a timeless joke.

[phantomrose96]

Quick, people who have no context for this, which one of these Amonguses is the hot one

[phantomrose96]

I bequeath to you my shitty excel chart I made of [checks notes] the first 35 guesses

[phantomrose96]

I also give you the (time-stamped to the correct moment [5:06]) reveal

[readysetjo]

This post is a zombie. 🧟‍♀️ Pick one of the answers to see if you were bit or not. (There are 5 bite results out of 12 under the cut.) Best of luck. My deadeye is awaiting to meet any infected at the entrance of camp.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

Remaining time: 3 days 9 hours

A. Zombie bit you! 🧟

B. Safe

C. Zombie bit you! 🧟‍♀️

D. Safe

E. Safe

F. Safe

G. Zombie bit you! 🧟‍♂️

H. Zombie bit you! 🧟‍♀️

I. Safe

J. Safe

K. Zombie bit you! 🧟‍♂️

L. Safe

[elexuscal]

Fanfiction question:

If you describe a story as a "kid fic", what is your intended meaning?

Characters caring for/parenting a child (canon OR fanon)

Characters caring for/parenting a child (fanon specific)

Kids are a major presence/focus

Adult character(s) become kids/are de-aged through magic or whatev

Alternate Universe where the characters are kids/much younger

Set in the past when the characters were children

Multiple of the above

ALL of the above

Something else entirely

i'm just here for the ride

Remaining time: 4 days 13 hours

i've often been checking out a fanfic exchange or a similar event, see "kid fic" listed in the requests or 'DNW'. And it's not a major Problem since these aren't my Go Tos and i sure wouldn't write any of them if I wasn't sure... But i do Wonder if there have been some unfortunate mix ups in the past.

[specialagentartemis]

The primary version of “kid fic” as I understand it is “canon characters ARE children”—whether magically de-aged or simply taking place while they were children.

I personally would not call “characters taking care of canon children” kidfic, and would only go “I mean, I guess” at calling “characters take care of fanon children” kidfic.

… so this result is fascinating to me.

[elexuscal]

based on the results so far, the real question: is System Collapse a kid fic

[rabbitindisguise]

imo "kidfic" is specifically making a character into a kid either through magic, being set in the past, an AU, etc so a little different from the above since it's more expansive to include other types of kidfic tropes

"there's just kids in the fic" doesn't make any sense to me because that's just??? that's just a kid there? it would be more efficient to name specific characters from canon you don't want to see instead of having the writer guess. However I think it's safe to assume that they probably don't want to read that either on a DNW list without a clarification by including every possible definition of kidfic by default. Like if I say "no roadtrips" I'm not going to be secretly hoping for a specific type of roadtrip I didn't say was okay

(as for system collapse I think it's definitely a babysitter AU or babysitter!mb or something)

[jackironsides]

I have definitely seen kidfic used to refer to "we have these characters a child to look after" much more than I have for deaging. It wouldn't even occur to me that was an alternate usage. I suspect it means different things in different fandoms.