A mixed bag today.
Slow updates
Blogger is being incredibly slow to update my blogroll and others. Increasingly, it has been taking hours, and now several days is normal. Even weeks in some cases. I can't explain why this is and have no idea what to do about it. I'm posting this on Tuesday so maybe people will become aware of it on Friday, which is always the Main Trans Blogging Day!
Pride Month
Pride month continues and here in Italy events in big cities like Genoa and Rome have been very well attended. Milan Pride has been going on all week and is expected to end in the biggest parade of all this Saturday.
Rome's Pride was marred by an attack by fascist activists who squirted pepper spray on the rainbow families float in Rome. (Despite the disaster that fascism had brought to Italy by 1945, it still has its adherents. Hard to believe, but true.) Despite this violence, the rainbow families continued their parade. It's a reminder as to why we have Pride.
Attacking families! Seriously! Maybe, if they are so opposed to Pride Parade we could propose an annual Shame Show for fascists and fundamentalists.
No AI
I've felt it advisable to put on my About page that this site does not use AI. One or two copyright-free images I've used are AI but none of the photos or text here are.
Technology can be a useful tool, or a destructive one. Internet, broadband and small home computers revolutionised my industry making it faster, easier, more connected, more productive and so providing a better living. But at the same time, AI is taking some of our bread-and-butter work away.
In terms of art, another line of work I used to do, AI is ruining human talent and creativity. There is nothing like being creative, working with your hands, making music... It's what humans have developed over thousands of years. That redundancy started with photography that took the livelihoods of jobbing artists who painted portraits, signs, interior decorations and so forth. Why pay a person to take time over an illustration when you can just snap the scene? Visual and creative AI and other technology may make life easier, quicker and cheaper (the great mantra of our age), but talent and creativity make that life worth living. What humans are best at is being made redundant.
I saw an interview with a girl in England where they plan to remove social media for the young. "You spent nine hours on social media this weekend. What will you do when you no longer have it?" asked the interviewer. "Stare at the wall," was her reply. How sad. She has no talents to hone and share? no curiosity? no desire to socialise for real? It does suggest she's hooked. And there is scope for better platforms.
Technology is a double-edged sword. Use it wisely.
Heatwave and slimming
Yes, it's hot. Even I who love the heat am having difficulty sleeping.
The good thing is that heat makes you want to eat less and that's working wonders for my figure. I'm the lightest I've been for at least 15 years now and still going down. With luck, by the end of the summer I'll be where I want to be, but I'm not settting a target. Events have a habit of getting in the way. As will that big tub of ice cream I've ordered!
The revolving door
I see Britain has lost another Prime Minister. It's really very careless. A bit like constantly losing change down the back of the sofa.
The UK's main political problem is not The Economy, which is presented as the yardstick for judging how things are going, but the fact that its head of government has far more power than any other such position in a Western democracy but the postition is chiefly subject to party support, not to mention the whims of the PM's personality. This makes the UK more of an oligarchy than any other Western country. Resolve this one problem and government there should improve as power becomes more devolved as it used to be. It's as though Britain has forgotten the lessons it learnt very hard in the 17th century with its absolute monarchs and fundamentalist ideologies and the divisions they caused. Never concentrate power into the hands of one man or small group.
Ah, the 17th century! When Britain sent its political undesirables, its religious maniacs, its corrupt businessmen, its criminals and its pirates to America where they could never cause any more trouble again.
Sue x
Britain sent the US all their undesirables. I could deal with the thieves, murderers, sex workers and gamblers. But giving us your religious undesirables was too much. Please take them back soon. :-)
ReplyDeleteLOL. We need to find some large but deserted island somewhere to put them all on. Then they can set up their paradise on earth there and leave the rest of us in peace. Sue xx
DeleteBack in 1883, a large number of blowhards, chancers, and assorted ne'er-do-wells moved to a small island near Java.
DeleteSo vehement was their hate that the nearby volcano, Krakatoa, erupted.
To this day, scholars are unsure if it was the concentrated rage bait or that Mother Nature has just had enough 😉
Funny to read your views on AI given I recently posted about art and movement and used AI to create images and turn them into watercolour to use on my post. I can understand your position on it, but it has really helped me be more creative and has also helped me cope better with my gender dysphoria in ways I didn’t think possible. I do hope you’re not up off visiting my blog, especially with my use of AI, it would be a shame to lose you.
ReplyDeleteSad to hear about the Rome Pride, glad it to read that the rainbow families float was able to continue on.
So right about UK politics Sue, I couldn’t have written it better myself.
Lotte x
ReplyDeleteFunny to read your views on AI given I recently posted about art and movement and used AI to create images and turn them into watercolour to use on my post. I can understand your position on it, but it has really helped me be more creative and has also helped me cope better with my gender dysphoria in ways I didn’t think possible.
I do hope you’re not put off visiting my blog, especially with my use of AI, it would be a shame to lose you.
Sad to hear about the Rome Pride, glad it to read that the rainbow families float was able to continue on.
So right about UK politics Sue, I couldn’t have written it better myself.
Lotte x
Hi Lotte, thanks for your two comments. I'll reply to this one.
DeleteAI can be fun in generating images and music and I do appreciate a lot of amusing AI output (apart from the fakes). I do like your recent feminine movement images very much (and they reminded me of my adoration as a child for ballerinas, gymnasts, skaters, etc. and their grace, the sort of thing I wasn't allowed to be). But to illustrate what I mean about creativity, let me give you an example from your own blogs. The images you used to post of the outfits you were putting together involved more labour and were therefore more creative and more honest because they spoke more about what you were really determined to express and put the effort into expressing. We can see more of you, your style, your interests and your reality in those than in something generated from a vast databank by a machine. It's the same with art, stagecraft, music and the like. Some AI songs can be fun, even hilarious, and take less time to create than thinking up a song and strumming to it. But it's the experience of learning to play and sing, and communicating with an audience that really make music worthwhile. There's nothing like live music, or live performance of any kind, or bright paint on canvas or hard, solid sculpture to express one's real feelings and effort, and to show and share talent and appreciate that talent. If you go to the theatre, a concert, a gig in the pub, touch that statue in the town square, hold a photo, or whatever, you feel way more connected to the people expressing themselves by it than looking or listening to something ephemeral on a screen. What's bothering me about social media, AI and so on is that, far from bringing people together as claimed, it actually gives each of us a bubble filled with trivia and stuff just of the moment instead of helping us communicate with one another through creative work. If you get a card made by someone, or they bake you a cake, or they draw your picture, or they sing you a song, aren't you more touched by that than that thousandth piece of guff you saw online today, even if forwarded specifically to you?
This is one reason why I suggest you meet other trans people rather than using AI as a sounding board. People may be able to give you answers you never thought of which a machine can't do as it's only following your cues and confirming your outlook and approach. AI can't suggest or challenge as it doesn't have experience or sentience or empathy like people do.
Don't worry, Lotte, it'll not put me off your blog at all. You do you. The story of your trans life is one well worth reading about and I'll support you in any way I can on your journey.
Sue xx
Thank you, Sue. I think you've expressed your position very well, and I actually agree with quite a lot of what you've said.
DeleteThere's definitely something special about creating something with your own hands, whether that's painting, making music, sewing an outfit, baking a cake, or any other craft that requires time, skill and effort. You're right that those things reveal a lot about the person who made them, and there is a connection there that can't be fully replicated by technology.
Where I perhaps see things differently is that I don't view AI as replacing creativity so much as becoming another tool for expressing it. The images I've been creating still begin with ideas, emotions and experiences that are my own. In particular, they've allowed me to explore aspects of femininity and movement that resonate deeply with me and, as I mentioned before, have genuinely helped me cope with gender dysphoria. In that sense, the technology isn't the creative spark; it's a medium through which I'm trying to express something personal.
I also take your point about human connection. AI has been useful as a sounding board, but I don't see it as a substitute for real relationships or conversations with other trans people. Nothing can replace learning from people who have lived experiences of their own.
I suppose where I end up is seeing AI as neither a miracle nor a menace. Like most tools, its value depends on how it's used. For me, it's opened up creative possibilities that I wouldn't otherwise have had access to, while still leaving plenty of room for human creativity, community and connection.
And thank you for your kind words about my blog and my journey. Your support means a great deal to me.
Fair enough, Lotte, and your reply was a good defence of the technology. A responsible person uses any tool as intended. My worry is for those who don't know how to. Sue xx.
DeleteOh dear, I might use the phrase 'back in my day' unironically 😉
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I won't mourn the loss of money and 'capture then young' stats for Big Tech. I have some empathy for teens who would use the platforms sensibly and to get much needed support, when there's none in there area.
I feel a bit like teens are taking the brunt of it because social media companies don't give a hoot, so long as the money is rolling in. Still, perhaps this might promote the right type of change.
Now, back to the Back In My Day nonsense 🙂 I would watch a lot of TV. It was a way to switch off and still a noisy mind. I guess that's just a different type of brainrot. People change, their interests alter, so maybe it's too early to say what the effects will be on the individual and the next generation.
I think the problem is that the world has been too complacent and just accepted cheap stuff from the US or China without feeling the need to improve on it. We've watched glitzy Hollywood movies, however lousy and derivative, eaten US junk food, viewed mediocre US TV shows, bought crummy Chinese gadgets to watch all this stuff with and just accepted this way of doing things online which is usually just about getting consumers to want more through affirmation and targeted content rather than something genuinely social, interesting or truly stimulating. Europe is developing pay systems outwith the US orbit and now I feel we should start to create better social platforms for true connection rather than just for likes and followers and advert after advert and basically being spied on so corporations can make money. All media have merit, provided the content is made for the user's benefit not just for the maker's profit. Sue xx
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