scrolled through this whole thing like i need to know the code geass opinion and was immediately overjoyed to see the opening sentence LOL

had a brief moment where i thought we had stayed at the same APA hotel in osaka -- turns out i was thinking of one of the other 7 or 8 surrounding namba station

the question you failed to answer in this wrap-up is whether you have returned enlightened or broke (or possibly both)?

oh THAT is going to require its own post

Cool maps! What did you use to make those—reminds me of Arc :—D

i plotted all the points and wrote the descriptions in "google my maps", could've just embedded that in the page but instead i exported it all to a .kml file and then displayed it using this javascript library called "leaflet"

What a plot twist!

wait, i love this so much. i might steal the index idea if that's okay!

yeah sure, probably best to be more selective about what to include than i am tho because i think i'm making it unusable by throwing in a bunch of one-off mentions i think are funny

Can't read the whole thing on AI poetry because of the paywall, but I'm not surprised by the outcome, only disappointed by the author's conclusions. Much of the best poetry is difficult because it's at the absolute limit of what language can convey. AI poetry appeals because it's an intellectual exercise that sounds nice. Poetry is beauty and terror and confusion, which coincidentally is what being human is.

i think you and i have the same internet

emilynhoward’s “much of the best poetry is difficult because it’s at the absolute limite of what language can convey” — thank you... thank you for this.

but whew, so glad to have read this.

maybe my excerpt made this unclear, but the author definitely is not agreeing with those statements about how poetry "ought to be", he's just echoing the reasons why people prefer AI poetry. there's like two paragraphs after that too, mostly about the "abyss stares back" effect where AI writing will have an influence on human writing... i for one feel like i've started using a lot more em dashes lately...

as an em dashes overuser i often worry whether someone will think my writing is ai...

> "it's bad on purpose to make you click, it's bad on purpose to make you click" i repeat as a mantra to avoid completely losing it.

you are so real for this

it is more important than ever to practice good epistemic hygiene... like all powerful mantras, i didn't originate it, it was given to me

disappointed to hear about the oliver sacks thing but can't say i'm surprised either. i never really read them for their legitimacy, i personally found them interesting from the point of view of how humans adapt and are shaped by inhibitions of sensory interpretation and memory recall. even if they are thought experiments at best, the man who mistook his wife for a hat was still a fun read

and a lot of his anecdotes do broadly line up with my personal experiences taking care of dementia patients. so hopefully as a pop-sci book it at least helps garner sympathy for those with memory difficulty

also i'm jealous of tao lin i would like several feral pigs please.

@suboptimalism Thanks for the clarification. In Western society currently, we are at what I believe are world-historical levels of under-appreciation of poetry. I cannot think of a society past or present that practices poetry but values it less than we currently do. So why not give it to the robots, just like automating tech support or something.

you should read leave society if you get a chance imo (unlike you i've read that one but failed to read taipei several times)

i plan on it but the way i want to get a copy may take some time

utterly diabolical

where you been, loca?