I have an internet friend who spent some time in Ushuaia recently. Seems like a lovely part of the world… and if nuclear war breaks out you’re pretty well insulated from it, which is a bonus. ;)

Patagonia is my favorite place in the entire world, tbh, I'm happy being anywhere near the Andes.

I sure am lucky to live in the country that owns the green part of Patagonia. The Andes look beautiful in winter!

I've only seen the Southern Cone in photos and videos. As much as I admire its largely unspoilt beauty, I wouldn't care to live there. Its appeal is perfectly fathomable..

based laptop chad

Had I been here upon your first annunciation, I would've warned against the sale or relinquishment of such a useful tool, and advised you to cultivate some discipline to eschew online activity when you'd rather read and draw. Otoh, I'm glad that you're more interested in books than sites.

I don't believe getting rid of your personal belongings will help achieve your goal, for me, being completely honest, that's a bad way to cultivate self control. especially with your objective because it doesn't make sense at all, if the computer is something that is in your way, the laptop will be just as much in your way lol

It's fine; I don't do anything on the machine I gave away that I can't do on my old trusty laptop. Not being nailed to a single place will benefit me, and I'll reclaim a lot of space occupied by the screen, keyboard, etc for more useful stuff.

@ongezell No, because I can't be fucked to use my laptop for anything but work. I get home and I forget it exists.

And, well, although it's important, self control is not even my main goal. It's just I don't see much use for it anymore. It's a big bulky powerful machine that I don't use for anything but to update my site. It's a waste! I might be whimsical, but this is something I've been meditating for a year or so.

All else aside, any summer is well spent reading :)

I've been having similar thoughts on this subject. I don't agree with 100% of your takes... but I'm also concerned about where this is going. It kind of reminds me of crochet vs knitted pieces in a way. Crochet cannot be done by machine whereas knit obviously can. But both have so much value when lovingly crafted by human hands.

I'm also concerned about everything online becoming unverifiable, and AI flooding every site / search machine with slop (which is already happening). Tricky and nuanced subject.

Tbh, AI is just one of the symptons of late stage capitalism, even if AI wasn't a thing, shit had already hit the fan years ago. AI is just being used to replace people in sweatshops (mind you, not 100% yet because they still are still incapable of not producing slop)

Also, I don't agree with the AI thing being indistinguishable from an actual human made art, 9.99 out of 10, AI art will be slop, maybe, high quality slop, still SLOP. AI art is just aalgorithms consuming and regurgitating art that already exists. you can pretty much and I kid you not distinguish art made by AI to art made by a human. at least if you are a artist yourself.

Mega corporations will use whatever slop they can get to get those few cents of profit tho, it doesn't even need to look good. so looking realistic or passable isn't even a problem

@amy I'm aware of that and while it's true that it's a cause for concern, search engines being flooded with slop has been a thing since SEO's been a thing (obligatory thanks g**gle for ruining the internet), and the damage can't be repaired. That's why I didn't mention it.

@ongezell I'm not sure if it's 100% distinguishable. Yes, slop is slop no matter what, but with some slight taste you CAN generate stuff that looks legit. It's fortunate that most people who generate art aren't artists, and most importantly, have no taste.

@ongezell but here's the thing: most people aren't artists, so slop WILL end up winning out as it becomes easier to produce and especially more profitable to produce. "Consumers" don't care as long as it looks alright, and no creator will want or be able to compete against the endless, almost oppresive amount of slop! Unless... they prevail?

@ongezell then again I only have in mind people who do art for a living. Hobbyists will just keep on truckin no matter what since they don't depend on it.

My point is, AI is a symptom not a cause. I don't actually believe AI is that much of a threat to Us, the threat is in the hands of those developing it. I honestly don't see AI endangering us more than any of the existing average suspects (mega corporations) that being said I honestly don't believe AI will get better than this too honestly.

If you take a notice on all the AI technology being produced, it's honestly just a fancy search engine at best and even then it can get pretty bad, just look at google and chat gpt with their products. ChatGPT is hot garbage when it comes to anything that is actually just a little bit complicated, gemini? lmao Not to mention the amount of energy this shit consumes

I don't know how to describe it but everything about AI is just so pathetic to me it doesn't even makes me worried.

I do agree AI is a symptom of this lovely anti-human illness we have as a society. As for generative AIs being crap, I would tread with care. There's no way that what they show us is the best there is. Oh, also, I didn't want to mention the energy usage argument because it's always tackled to the end as an afterthought, never the main argument against this stuff.

You may have erred in assuming that one of several functional corollaries fatalistically determines an essence of technology. We can't know whether AI is a truly effective succedaneum for human intelligence until it produces genuinely substantive works. At present, its imitative faculties are superficially applied without any profundity of style or substance.

Ongezell observes that most AI is slop; I'd contend that one of many reasons why is that those who opt to use it professionally (whether mendaciously or otherwise) are perforce uninspired. It's an easy means. I'll always collaborate with human artists because no AI can illustrate my stories satisfactorily. In that regard, I am by no means special.

@rbuchanan you're right in that my wording implies that I determine the essence of technology from AI; this is not so. I meant it more generally; AI is not the first or the last in a long series of anti-human technologies. As ongezell mentioned, AI is just another symptom, but not the cause.

The moment I'm 18, I'm putting "DNI If You're Under 18".

Back in my day we pretended to be 32-year-old nerds with jobs on the internet as kids and we *liked* it! :triumph:

^ Real, for the longest time I pretended to be +18 on the petsites I used to frequent because everyone else were adults lmao. On the following sites by minors, I guess it depends on the kind of site. I don't like associating with them, but if the site is impersonal (ie a portfolio, purely informative on a series, etc) I don't see much of a problem.

Yeah! I also lied about my age back then. Maybe kids don't care too much about it now since they were never taught to protect their identities to the extent we were, if at all.

@drawcia Sadly the sites I ended up following are personal. I don't think I'll unfollow them, because they seem "sane" enough, but I'll tread with care.

I wasn't expecting so many kids to be making their own websites here but there's a surprising amount of them

@ongezell I’ll be honest and say i was 13 when i first made my site — it’s a fun creative outlet that doesn’t need you to spend your pocket money on anything. (Then again, i had the sense not to put my entire medical history and personal details on there… 20YOWebmasterShakesFistAtCloud.webp)

I was too, but I guess at the time I was around adults way more than people my age lol here it seems that there's significantly more teens?

Well, I think it's good that they're making sites, anyway. They're willing to put in the effort to do so. Yeah, kids aren't stupid.

I'm among the oldest people known to me on this site, I'm indifferent to the ages of other users, and I'm not passing any baton to anyone because I'm going to outlive most, if not all of you.

@rbuchanan Be my guest. I'm content in my finitude.