I feel like the alt captions for the images, although diligent and thorough, don't really capture the most important aspects.
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Knitting bullshit
211–220 of 221 posts
Re: Knitting bullshit
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The growth of AI feels a little like losing a limb Or gaining a new, oddly misshapen and inexplicably placed limb of no apparent purpose or utility.
That will randomly and unpredictably try to take over tasks from your other limbs, hijacking your somatosensory system so you can't tell when it's doing so without actively looking at what you're doing.
Alien Hand Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_hand_syndrome
Re: Knitting bullshit
#213What a masterpiece, this article.
BTW, if it's not already there, I encourage voting "Slop" as the Word of the Year.
Along with its corollary: the "Slop Factory"
Re: Knitting bullshit
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately there is a lot of cargo cult science around. I am not just referring to alternative viewpoints (which vary in validity), but even things from mainstream outlets masquerading as mainstream science. One such example was businesses claiming physical cash was unhygienic while promoting dirty touchscreens for ordering. Real science has indicated that many of these touchscreens are covered in bacteria if they…
> The Daily Mail has been telling us that the Yellowstone supervolcano is about to blow for nearly thirty years now at least. That's the Daily Mail, though. They platformed Andrew Wakefield, a misrepresentation of science that has a massive body count. A more serious question for Silicon Valley is the San Andreas fault.
I would argue that the heavy handed censorship we saw in the early 2020s fuels the likes of Andrew Wakefield though. There was plenty of cargo cult science during that period, notably the U-turn on masks (in early 2020 people were being told they were ineffective) and many others. I suspect that was down to supply and demand. There were plenty of other unscientific ideas out there, and not all from the anti-side. People respect ideas more when they come from people with power. Allowing Amazon and pizza delivery access to everyone's door was not good epidemic control by any metric. I could specify other things.
Freedom of expression is important because it is not just members of the great unwasjed who promote ridiculous "science".
Yes, I agree about San Andreas. A problem for all California.
Re: Knitting bullshit
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are not the same. One is a passive thing (viewing) and the other is active (physical creation). We should not mistake one for the other. It is like the difference between listening to music and making it.
That's completely your subjective opinion that ignores reality. If people feel like they are participating in something, or they feel like their identity is based on something they consume passively, it's as valid as the physical thing. If people did not feel good from passive consumption, no-one would be listening, following or looking at things, people would just make and create all the time, which is obviously not…
Reality involves physical objects you can hold in your hands, not abstract experiences. Abstract experiences are subjective not objective most of the time.
Knitting is not just entertainment, it's a means to produce useful things as well as artistic projects.
Many people are either lazy or have been discouraged from creativity by a consumer society and the education system. I've watched plenty of online content. I have nothing from it but feelings (the very subjective opinion you talk about), and very occasionally a tiny bit of new information. Knitting creates clothing which can be used to keep out the cold (objective) and so on. In fact this very winter, I wore things my friends knitted me. Gloves, hat, socks, snood, scarves... They served a practical function beyond entertainment or just looking good.
Re: Knitting bullshit
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have reported some of it to YouTube. No idea if anything will come of it. A lot of fake C.S. Lewis and Carl Jung content for some reason. It bears no resemblance to things they actually said.
A problem with reporting it is the AI producers can churn out thousands or millions of the things. They need some sort of automated or semi automated way of dealing with it I guess.
They do, but I don't know how to do it. I truly despise seeing some video supposedly quoting from a famous historical figure and which turns out to be AI.
I saw a video of Irish quotations the other day. Among these great Irishmen were Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill. (I believe Churchill had family connections to Ireland but he would never have called himself Irish, let alone Einstein.)
Re: Knitting bullshit
#217does anyone else’s eyes just glaze over once they spot AI? there are MILLIONS of high quality public domain illustration, clipart, €5 illustration packs on etsy etc etc. It just never looks good and I assume your content is also AI generated so I ignore it
Re: Knitting bullshit
#218I wonder if (or, more accurately hope that) this kind of slop will eventually die out as people realise how little care is put into it. I am more and more convinced that if the devil existed he'd take care of the bigger stuff, but have an army of little devils that encourage people to do things like make unsupervised automated podcasts about knitting, relentlessly chipping away at the messy joys of living.
WWE has been a successful business model for a long time now, and shows no signs of dying out.
I haven't listened to those podcasts, but from Kate's description the recipe is the same as WWE. They appeal to the senses using only bullshit. The outcome is preordained, they are selling the hype only, the reality doesn't matter.
There is clearly customer base for this sort of thing that isn't going away. Amazingly it appeals to all age groups: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jN2Jxp_o4OtLZl4HuK2jWAtmUyy...
It works so well the USA has president who sold himself to the voters using this very same model.
Re: Knitting bullshit
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
The same way that the AI generated podcast about knitting, or engaging in consumption is enjoyable for many people and a form of stress relief, which was the point that the comment above was criticizing. So the conclusion is that the utility of the activity is subjective, and if most people spend their time listening to AI factually incorrect podcasts about knitting and enjoying it, it's no different than knitting yo…
They are not the same. One is a passive thing (viewing) and the other is active (physical creation). We should not mistake one for the other. It is like the difference between listening to music and making it.
It is fine though if people who don't knit enjoy knitting podcasts, but this is not that. Somewhere between the producer/consumer relationship there should exist some actual knitting. Otherwise (in cases like this) it's just plain exploitation.
Re: Knitting bullshit
#220This is a great post, but am I the only person who thinks the AI-generated images are brilliant? They are haunting and disturbing in a good-art kind of way -- if I saw them in a gallery I would think the artist has real talent. I'd certainly think they were better, and more interesting, than most other modern art I see, and there are many artists who try to unnerve the viewer in exactly this way and fail. Maybe I just have bad taste. But I'd love to know exactly which AI the author used to generate them. It certainly wasn't frontier models. Midjourney, maybe, but I don't see how you'd get those images from Midjourney without adding the adjectives "unnerving" or "surreal" or something.