I understand that but my question remain: do you really think you need to worry about what a random person can think about you? There are 8 billions plus people to worry about, then.And if you think you should, have try to understand why?

I know a few people, I could name them, that would like to slap me in the face (because I dare live a different life) and I have little doubt that many perfect strangers would also not like me because of that live. I know many others would not like like me because they think I’m too bald, or too bearded, too tall or too thick maybe. Or because I don’t talk enough, or too much. Or because don’t like bananas. Because I don’t have a TV at home, no Netflix, and so on.

There are as many reasons to not like me (or hate me) as there people willing to waste their time finding reasons to not like me. And like I said, I’m fine with them not liking me, why should I not be? But I will not waste a second of my own precious time worrying about their opinion. They’re strangers.

There is this thing called ‘Stoicism’, an old Roman philosophy that could be grossly summarized like this: it’s a waste of one’s energy to worry about things one can’t change. It happens one can’t change other people’s opinion.

If you’re confident you did nothing to deserve that anger, why worry about some stranger having a bad day? Even more so: why let that ruin your evening?

I know plenty people who don’t like me and that’s fine. At least, I’m fine with it.

Preparing?

I mean, if there is a ‘collapse’, what use will there be to stock pile some food/medications? If those are not stolen by raiders (aka other people believing they ought to survive… a side note to those of our American friends who worship the holy gun: no, you won’t own enough bullets to shoot them all). Those stocks they will only last so long, right? Then, what?

It’s even simpler in my very personal situation: I’m alive today thx to constant medications. Stop the inflow of those medications and I will last a couple years at most (dixit the same doctors that have been keeping me running for many years now). And that is in the best conditions, which probably won’t be what we will all be experimenting.

So, I prepare by being fine with knowing things and I will end. Which they will, even without any collapse. And by knowing other things will replace them, with or without that odd human species that once ruled the planet.

On the short term, as my humble way to try reduce the risk of such a sad collapse happening, I do my best to reduce the resources I consume, and by encouraging people (me included) to rediscover there is an alternative path to self-destruction through constant anger and hate against the other(s)… and against oneself.

Don’t get me wrong it can be disturbing… like a lot of Flaubert’s work (go read ‘La tentation de Saint Antoine’ for example). It was already very disturbing when it was first published in the XIX century. So much so that Flaubert went into trial for this novel where he dared honestly describe a woman committing adultery.

Its sincerity is part of what makes this novel so powerful despite being 150+ years old. That coupled to Flaubert’s mastery as a writer… Like Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, another essential book imho, whose very first line should be enough to draw anyone into the novel. With ‘Mme Bovary’ one will probably need to read the first few pages, though, describing how 15 years old Charles Bovary enters a new classroom. But that should be enough to give a good idea of how finely tuned, how well crafted, the entire novel is.

The other reason it can be difficult to read today is that, well, it’s an old novel which means it was written for the readers of back then. Readers that were much more used than us to read more demanding texts. OI mean, suffice to read Jules Verne’s own novels (which are not literary master pieces, unlike Flaubert or Tolstoy) to realize how downhill the expectations have gone as far as we, readers, are concerned: some of Verne’s stories that were written for younger readers would be considered demanding read for more than a few adult readers nowadays.

If I may, Dumas won’t be disturbing. Or only to the most sensitive readers. The novel tells the story of barely older than teen boys in 17th century Paris. Young men that, while trying their best to act rightfully, are not afraid to fight in duels using their swords to maim or kill people, that are also not afraid to use their brains (with the same energy they put in using their swords) to find workarounds to their constant lack of money, and that are not ashamed to quickly and madly fall in love with women. It’s a a fun and easy read while being so very well written (it would make for an excellent suggestion to anyone willing to quickly improve their French, plus it’s fun ;)

If someone wanted to engage you in conversation, what topic would you be happiest to talk about?

Nothing. Allow me to explain.

I don’t come here for ‘happiness’. I mean, if I want to be happy I will spend time with my spouse, open some poetry or any good book. I will feel as good reading Alexandre Dumas ‘The Three Musketeers’, or Flaubert ‘Madame Bovary’ today like I felt good reading them for the time some 40+ years ago (replace Dumas by any of your favorite writer, just don’t replace Flaubert). I may also listen to Beethoven, Bach, or the Pink Floyd…

When I meet people here, I’m more into ‘is it something interesting they’re discussing? And are they doing it in a stimulating way?’

And about what topics? Well, the ones we probably already have in common since we are subscribed to the same communities ;)

Hi & welcome to all new users.

If you feel intimidated or jarred, it’s normal. Just keep in mind it’s OK make mistakes while trying new things out. There is only very kind moderators around here, well, a few are nice ;)

Don’t be afraid to ask questions about anything you find confusing (there are quite a few, to be honest).

And to those that have been here for a while, how has your experience changed over the year(s)?

1. I stopped worrying about the few things I did not like and focus my attention on what I think is great around here.
2. I learned to filter the default feed by showing only ‘Subscribed’ and learned to use keywords to filter out the many types of content I have zero interest in. It instantly made the experience much better.

thx :)

So much this.

Small Web is still a thing, one still needs to search for it. Maybe just a little deeper than they used to ;)

The hardest obstacle to finding it, imvho, is that most people can’t be bothered to begin searching for it: FB, X and all the other corporate turds are way too simple to use and way too shiny, why bother with anything else, right? Which is sad.

As someone who focus on low/no-tech (edit: and older stuff in a general manner), I must say it’s a tricky question. But the answer is still obvious for me: medications.

I should have died many years ago, and if I’m still alive today (nearing my 60s) it’s thx to constant innovations in the medical fields and research in pharmaceuticals (and also thx to radical life changing decisions, but those would not have been an option at all without new medications to begin with).

As far as I understand, nowadays in France customers will be targeted/harassed by the police, not the prostitutes themselves. Not anymore, at least.

I have no opinion. Never tried it.

I do worry more than a few prostitutes may not be that willing to do that, though.

Do you use the ability at all?

nope. I’m getting old enough, and my health is not that great, to not be keenly aware of how short life is. No matter the ratio of the exchange. I’m definitely not an Achilles ;)

If I was to answer that type of argument, I would consider those:

• why do you close the door of the bathroom when you use it?
• Can I watch you fuck?
• Show me your last income declaration
• Give me your credit card
• Why do you wear clothing?
• Why do you lock the door of the house?

but I tend to ignore people using the “I have nothing to hide” argument

for music: mpv to play good old audio files saved on a hard drive, from ripped CDs.

Agreed.

I’d argue that in some applications, this is fine.

It sure can be. Like I said, a bit like an address book has its purpose. But even if it has pages and printed text in it, an address book is not a book anyone would want to read, it’s just a stack of pages.

I have not considered UBI to be honest, maybe I should give it more consideration.
What I worry a lot more about is the way ‘creativity’ (as the OP tried to frame it) is being hijacked and privatised by very few corporations/private interests. The same that pillaged so many of our art history and creations in order to make their own version of it they want to sell us back.

How do you feel about the fact that art created by AI this year is not much different from art created by humans? I think those who have seen it themselves understand what I mean.

I would say It’s quite… challenging to hope to hold any discussion about an hypothesis that requires all participants to already agree on it. That’s more akin to entering a cult.

But here are a few remarks worth keeping in mind imho:

1. Art is not limited to visual art. Far from it.
2. Visual art is not about portraying something in such or such specific manner (be it realism, surrealism, or whatever else) it is about sharing an experience (which no AI can do, as it doesn’t live and can’t experience shit by itself) and it is about sharing an emotion that can be ranging from the pure emotional one to the most cerebral. Things that no AI, no matter how sophisticated it is, can experiment either as it certainly has no soul and it has no mind. At best, an AI is a complex set of statistical textual analyses. At best. Hence it’s ability to spit out pure non-sense with the same seriousness as it will spit out factual data.
3. Randomly copying and iterating randomly is not ‘creating’ anything it’s playing with volumes of data (and violating copyright). Art is all about making decisions and following one’s own path.
4. AI art is boring. Like reading an address book would be (edit: still, even boring it can be useful like an actual address book). People are more then welcome to enjoy boring, like they’re more than welcome to watch shit shows on the TV, if that’s really what they want to get out of their life. I’d rather not and therefore I focus my time on less boring (and human made) art.

How do you feel about the fact that now and in the future, AI will do most of the creative work

If by creative you mean mimicking/monkeying what human do, well… AI can ‘do’ all the ‘creative’ work it can. It won’t make me enter any art gallery or museum to look at it and it will certainly not make me willing to spend a cent accessing it either.

No more than, say, good (bad?) old Microsoft Clippy ever pushed me to enter a bookshop in order to check if it had published anything under its name.

How do you feel

And you, how do you feel about asking questions that aren’t questions? And what do you get out of trying to portray AI as what it is not?

Edit: some clarifications + typos.

Should we tell people Lemmy exists

Tell them, sure. Preach it to them, a little less so imho. I often see people being such a pain in the you know where insisting on making other people using whatever it is they’re using, or proving them wrong when they don’t want to. It’s not the best way to make it attractive to anyone.

or is the organic slow growth much better long term?

There is no assurance it will get better. The reality is that it can fail, like it so frequently happen with anything ‘organic’. Living things can grow for sure, but they can also not grow at all and die. For many reasons, including the lack of care and… excessive care too (try giving too much water to a plant, or too much food to some creature).

What I do is tell people wanting to reach me I don’t use centralized social media at all. And that they can find me around here (or on my blog, or through email).

A few will indeed reach out to me using those, while most will simply not bother trying. Quite normally, I would say, as most don’t care about reaching out to me specifically (or anyone else, for that matter), they care about getting an answer (from anyone) to whatever is bothering them, or getting instant feedback/validation. And they care about it as easily as possible, putting in as little efforts as possible… meaning they’re not looking forward to trying new and less popular ways.

Depends how long you keep them in the fridge.