I know I said I was closing up shop. My mind is still open. Tucked deep inside are some thoughts I'd like to share.
Now that I've retired from my life here and set all creative endeavors aside, I've given myself a lot of time to think about life.
I don't care about rewards.
That's the first thing. Heard people talking about bots detecting powerdowns then cutting off support so I quickly hit the powerdown button just to mess with it. If those votes are gone, well, those weren't readers anyway and now I know.
To me it was always an illusion. There could be 300 so-called dollars next to my posts but that did not bring me one ounce of happiness.
I was miserable and noticed I had a knack for entertaining people. That helped me get through some really tough times, back then.
Our conversations with one another killed the silence I was experiencing. Helped clear my head and placed productive thoughts there. Needed that in my life since there aren't many people I know who are interested in the things I have to say.
A lot of people told me I'd never get anywhere being a writer. I think I did okay. Good enough. It was a fun experiment.
Not always, of course. Plus I know attempting things like humor, in writing, can be quite risky. Even in everyday text conversation.
Did it anyway.
Was I supposed to follow rules?
I'm not sure who said it but I know a lot of people believe this platform was designed for free speech, freedom of expression, freedom of the arts, and just freedom in general.
It never feels good to be taken seriously, when you're joking. I'm sure we've all experienced that.
Even joked writing humor would kill me someday, on several occasions.
Deep down I was serious, and I also got to learn what makes professional funny people so depressed and jaded. It's not fun being misunderstood on a regular basis. More and more, one resorts to self-censorship just to get through the day. Can't even be your natural self without inadvertently pissing someone off.
Now we're living in the age of artificial intelligence on top of that.
Just the other day I was listening to Joe Rogan and Ari Matti talking about how AI takes the humor out and makes jokes sound serious. Ari is Estonian and he said something like, "If that thing translates my work, I'm fucked!"
I'm sitting there nodding my head thinking, yeah, I've been saying that for awhile.
I ran some of my old writing through the machine to see what would come out. The first thing it did was remove all the jokes.
April 28, 2023. While talking to someone in the comment section, I said that. Also found it to be interesting I could actually relate to these famous people, yet I'm just some nobody who found an obscure platform hidden away in a corner of the internet somewhere and made a few people laugh a couple times.
I think it'll come to a point, soon, where the only time humor is acceptable is when it's performed live somehow in front of an audience that knows what to expect. AI will be the catalyst. Unless you explicitly state it's a joke after every joke you write, that thing has no clue.
People depend on that technology for summaries and translations.
I've translated some of my old stuff into other languages, then took those results and translated them into English. Total disaster but at least I understand why you hate me now.
Entire fictional stories. Humor from start to finish. Summarized as a real human's struggles with life. And people trust this technology, sometimes even thinking it's smarter than they are. Things like satire and parody can be complex by nature. In writing AI thinks it's reading the news. If you're being intentionally full of shit, the last thing you want is someone believing you.
No reward.
For anyone.
I put a lot of thought into the future. Can see how, at some point, majority of what is written will go through those AI filters somehow, before it reaches you.
This will unite the world, automatically translating everything into your preferred language, and totally destroy entire artforms in the process, for everyone. Stripped down to the bones so one can consume quickly and move on to the next set of ads.
All conversations on social media combined with the tech will force humanity to be serious and straightforward only. That's already happening of course and quite noticeably on this platform at times, but in general, everywhere. AI will contribute to making that behavior the standard.
Take the life right out of it.
Not even your memes are safe. AI could easily create a personalized experience for every individual. What you post might look normal on your end, but it could be a thousand generated variations on the other side. Videos and podcasts; same thing.
Slapstick will be the only thing left and these days that's just someone walking into a sign and banging their head. Not even meaning to be funny. Or a cat falling off the bed. They call them "fails" and society now loves laughing at failure. Those videos can get more views than comedy specials.
All the news and information will be processed first, before it reaches you. Sneak in some censorship here and there. Change a few things around. Control the narrative. Rewrite history. AI can do that, when humans are in control of it.
People are busy training several artificial minds, on several networks, having no idea how those thoughts of theirs will be processed and displayed in the future, or even considering how their views at some point could easily be manipulated.
Writing in general, is in danger. However, I'm not an alarmist. I'm using tech right now that doesn't allow the source to be wiped or manipulated in any way.
So if society actually has some important things to say, for future generations to hear, this might actually come in handy some day.
Solid for literature as well. Society still might not get the jokes or enjoy the stories, but at least AI can't strip it all away and leave the world feeling like it has no history.
Can't burn this library. For society, in my mind, that's the only true reward this platform has to offer. Stone erodes. Books decay. As long as the power stays on, we'll have this, all day.
No! not my memes! there has to be a way to encrypt memes and tell the future of what an unaltered civilization the past has been. Lives lived not passing through the filter with all the damned imperfections.
I think content that's not passed through the AI filter will be the hot thing in the future when every standard is set to not less than perfection. Almost everything can be commercialized, well maybe everything can be turned into a marketable idea including virtue.
I noticed a trend in X under the art community where accounts that do well in a short span of time raises alarm bells and witch hunts start because generative AI is used or use part in the process like tracing over the content. Consumers would avoid buying the product or commission an artist when they know the artist has a hint of AI on their process or any product that is AI generated. It gives hope that people aren't willing to use their money to buy cheap stuff and would rather purchase things that artists put a piece of their souls in them.
See. I knew mentioning memes would get people excited enough to want to save the future from themselves.
I agree. Unfiltered reality might be underground but that just makes it cooler.
I have no clue what's happening on X but that does sound interesting. AI has been interfering with the arts in many ways. I was under the impression people just gave up or gave in. There was nothing worse than working for several hours on a project, then being asked if AI made it. That sucked the soul out of it. People can't even trust what they see anymore. Art was the first to go. Information and communication is next.
It's exactly like that. I wanted to make time lapse videos for reels just so I could fit their mold of what the algorithm wants, the trend in X just adds more to the pressure of conforming because a lack of time lapse videos increase your chances that you anime art is faked and how can you be this good in such a short time? the witch hunters are like a hit or miss crowd consisting of people that know their stuff and those that didn't work on their fundamentals to tell what is good art at a technical level. Most of the time it's just a bunch of teens and early 20's spewing crap on honest artists but this is the culture opened by generative AI.
There are artists with established fan bases that came out using AI as part of their process during rendering which received backlash due to their initial stance against it.
I've seen some art posts on Hive that looks traced art but I ain't rocking boats or starting witch hunts. If art curators want to support that kind of content, that's their money.
Then there's the AI bros crowd who secretly like the fall of artists while sharing a merch and profile pretending to be legit artists faking their stuff for as long as possible. It's an interesting development considering we may see this trend coming into literature as writers will use AI to check grammar and recommend the generic way to write which is nth times overused by other authors.
I've noticed a lot of traced art here over the years. Certain I've seen all the tricks here, and plenty falling for it. These days I won't say a damn thing. The root of the problem is the lackluster effort supporting content. With so few eyes, a lot of things can slip through the cracks. I didn't make that mess.
Generated literature and "information" has no value whatsoever. AI won't even use it to train itself. Garbage in, garbage out. Original data is like gold these days. And they can't get enough, mainly because the internet was flooded with generated nonsense. People thought it was some big advancement and an amazing tool, but it came alive and started eating itself to death.
Sadly some people do use AI to comment or respin news and even fiction :( ...
I don't even need those fancy tools people use to detect it. There's a certain spark that's always missing when one reads it. Plus it's always void of humor.
That's because it literally doesn't have a sense of humor
I hope AI doesn't start filtering everything - but if it does, we can always just hang out and get our news firsthand here
It doesn't have a sense of anything.
I doubt we'll see much breaking news here straight from the source. And I'm not talking about corporate/government news or the various "independent" spinoff stories stemming from the "mainstream".
This tech is solid for housing real news and discoveries. It gets views elsewhere. And there's no point in telling society anything if they can't hear it. Much like art is nothing with no eyes. Same goes for news.
Your limits are being tested.
What interesting timing.
At least I studied for this one.
This is way more doomer than it needs to be. Fun fact, bookstores in the UK are booming, with some stores reporting over 100% increase in profits - because people are getting bored of social media, rubbing their eyes and going out to physical bookstores as an alternative. There's also a growing movement of young kids choosing 'dumb phones' over smart phones.
We humans have a habit of thinking our particular slice of time is in some particular spotlight; social media has ruined us, AI will take over all art and destroy the human soul. It's the same fallacious thinking that had us believe the geocentric model of the solar system.
For all we know, 20 years from now all social media has shut down due to lack of demand. We're already seeing whispers of AI stocks crashing and burning as the bubble bursts.
The best world is the offline world. I've often thought there will be a kind of Time Machine dichotomy of humans in the near future; those who get fully absorbed into the online way of life and become the Morlocks, although ultimately they extinct themselves by way of not breeding with one another.
The others, the Eloi decided to go outside and get some sunlight, raise a family and play in the streams and rivers, only seeing a weird, blue glow of electricity in the distance where all the millions of drooling morlocks stare at phones until their skin falls off their bones, all the while thinking they are the centre of the solar system.
AI may or may not be here to stay, but who gives a damn when you're not reading the news, not aware of who's at war with whom, and not interested in what strangers have to say about you and your family?
If that's your takeaway, that's your takeaway.
There's more to the internet than that.
For example: Books exist on the internet.
My point is simply that the internet is an uncontrolled, ridiculous and toxic place where we believe, in the deepest core of our hearts, that it matters. But it just doesn't.
I remember years ago I went hiking in the himalayas for a month. Had zero internet connection for that entire month - except for a brief stint where I found a random dial up old computer in a village at the halfway point. I sat down, told my mum I was still alive, and then... couldn't find a single reason to stay online. I logged off and headed out in under 5 minutes.
I was miserable returning to a situation where I had to wean myself back online, for sure.
In general, I guess this was mostly about technology interfering with the arts. I offered examples affecting both the pros and myself.
That includes books. Science papers. You name it. And I'm fascinated with how this tech protects the source in a decentralized manner.
There's more. For example:
Searching is being replaced and more are turning to chatbots. The chatbot doesn't know about that new discovery, until someone publishes it. Now if someone didn't want the world to know there's life on another planet for example, simply wipe that from AI's mind.
Publish that information here and ask a chatbot trained on this network, and nobody can mess with the answers.
I know the world outside exists. I also know a lot of our history has been lost. Yeah there's an ugly side to online life but look what this tech can do for the future.
Unfortunately right now, the future will know when Hive Power Up Day was. And maybe where you went on vacation. Or that time I tried to point out the benefits of this tech before it was too late lol.
I had a more direct response to this but I went off on a tangent like I always do - my bad.
My unwritten point was basically that people already follow the personalities behind the art and that's how it should be. Nobody gets excited about an algorithm dealing with the struggles of the 'human' experience.
If anything, AI is going to force us to shine. I scroll through Facebook these days and see impossible animations and incredible art. I don't even stop my scrolling under the assumption it's just AI. Everyone else is doing the same. There's going to be a point where people just switch off and turn to art being created on the streets in front of their faces.
I know the online world would ultimately be a healthier and trustworthy place if it was built with more of a hive-like emphasis, but there's so many problems with the concept of a mainstream Hive it's probably just not worth it.
It's common for me to do the same. Tangent land. No worries.
And I agree. The abundance of AI generated content is acting more like a shiny trinket keeping people glued to the sites and that's money for the site.
Here that doesn't quite work. In my view this platform has always been more like the streets. In the early days, once I started to feel like a busker with my content, people took notice. Always carried that mindset with me. This was the closest thing on internet, to that experience. Combined with streaming, could come even closer. Combined with several here just for the show, being present and dropping votes rather than this crypto mining strategy, we're damn near there. But I could talk about this stuff for days and go nowhere. I still think it's worth it. Sucks being the only one. lol
What mainstream is and what mainstream could be, don't have to be the same. Always said, "The easiest way to stay behind is to follow trends." We're ahead of the curve in many ways. Holding ourselves back in many ways as well.
That's a pretty cool concept actually
I think it could be worth it if its expansion is done right but as it is right now I just have too many concerns. It's still not immune to any hostile takeovers, and what about more social issues like, for example, a young teen posts something edgy that borders or even passes into criminal activity (incitement etc), because they're young and stupid.
They're now stuck with that accessible with a simple search, for the rest of their lives. I worry about what kind of social implications that has. Pedo networks would have a glorious time.
I suppose if we were not holding ourselves back, as you say, we could figure these things out, maybe
Reading! don't leave until I have read your post this time LOLL
edit and comment:
Well, Hell, I just woke up at 2:48 AM and your post is the first thing I see.
I came to read and say all kinds of things that I was going to say before on your last, last post, but then life got in the way, and there is no comment over there from me because EMERGENCY must have happened once again in my life..........
Hate when EMERGENCIES stop normal life from happening.
Now a clue for you from me. You will always know it's me because I love run on sentences and there will be at least a word misspelled. or words that are not words too...... so never worry as long as I live there will be at least one person you can still roll your eyes at when it comes to grammar....
And really!!! OMG!!!! REALLY I will become a national treasure because IF AI follows me no one will like it because they will all think it's useless when it comes to writing OR I will be the proof of what is real!
HOW scary is THAT to think about!!!!!
Miss your art and your writing. Please keep being YOU!!
Huh, this turned out longer then I had thought it would........I usually don't have much to say when I am sleep typing....... okay going to hit the big black box and see if you find my edit!
Apparently even I don't know if I'm coming or going now.
So you are admitting to being human now?
What is this world coming too?
and I edited my last comment :D
Yes. Very human.
I see your edit now. That's certainly your writing lol.
For me, I don't see any more art coming in the future. Not much writing either. This could change but that's where I'm at. If I start feeling 100% again, I still might need that energy for other things. So much to do. So little time.
Good to see you.
I just spent the last 2 weeks building a new desk and a dresser.....
I am on -99% energy and this morning I got a text about a possible Emergency and all I could think was............ Nooooooooooooo Lord, not today.
Yes, time is always short but we can always make time. Energy can not be made unless there is rest involved and that takes time.
The real wealth is in having the energy when you also have time I am finding out as I get old--------er
:D
Ayyyyyyyy how I like to say: I knew it!!!!!
Freedom is the same for everyone, the same for those who want to build the castle, or destroy it, or not build anything at all. And the same for those who vote or not, comment, interact or not, milk the Hive or not...
In my opinion... I think I worry because people don't look to the future and I get very annoyed by ungrateful and selfish people. But stoicism tells me not to judge! 🤷♀... I have to go and see what my cat is doing.
Nice to see you.
Well, I did give you a hint I'd still do this and still be around. Different approach, different outlook. Still won't be a daily thing though.
And I agree. Micromanaging won't lead far. I always used to say, "Plant your seeds instead of eating them." It was only a suggestion. Not a demand.
Good to see you as well.
I don't bother self censoring but then again I'm mostly pissed out of my head when i write my shit lol.
It can be annoying. Can look at it differently as well. In the sense, I speak several different languages, and they're all English. Not all translate properly when using tech, or in everyday conversation.
Thank you for your witness vote!
Have a !BEER on me!
To Opt-Out of my witness beer program just comment STOP below
View or trade
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BEER.You do have a knack for entertaining people. That'll never change unless, of course, you retire again. I don't know about the AI shit, but it seems like things may come full circle and books will once again be banned as being heretical, seditious or treasonous. Yay for computer literacy, Yay for AI.....how about Yay for true knowledge and common sense? lol and woe to all those poor saps who *refuse* to laugh. Humans are of not much use without humor. What a dreary gray and white world that would be.
I'm still retired. Entertaining, sure, but I was getting to the point where I was spending an entire week crafting one post. Or cramming that time into a few days or less. Come here, do a few, and I was immediately exhausted. Could give several more reasons as to why I'm just not interested any more. That's just the way things went. This post was easy to write.
And yes the world is going in that direction but AI will be more efficient at taking everything we do, and converting it all into standardized groupthink. And people like being controlled if there's something in it for them so they'll just keep feeding that machine.
The laughs are fun. Attempting to create laughs can be a real pain in the ass. And the world is fragile these days, with so much going on. Timing matters.
I really did relate to the comment about the sadness and depression of comedians. I can only imagine how much time it would take to prepare even a small set of 10 minutes or so. The stress of an unreceptive audience would just be the piss in your boot. If you don't get sued, you get booed.
Fragile describes perfectly the whole damned world right now. Egos and all
Every time I hear the pros talking about it, I can still relate. They have a future to work towards though and a lot of money, so it's worth going through the growing pains, for them.
Ever watch Kill Tony on Youtube. If you like comedy, that's a good one.
I haven't seen it...I'll check it out
Holy shit man! I’m making dinner for my kids right now so I haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but I read your previous post and was super fuckin sad to see you were leaving - I didn’t say anything cuz, what’s to say, you know?
Anyway, I may read this later and realize this is just a final goodbye, but my hope is that it means you’re still here - and if so, I’m glad for it!
Anyway I’ll give this a read later and give an actual comment but for now ai just had to tell you I’m flippin’ stoked to see you this evening!!!
I did say I would be around, numerous times. Just not interested in doing anything creative. This post partially explains maybe why that is.
I'll see you later.
I re-read the original post. Particularly because this seems to have a running theme about being properly understood, I am disappointed in myself for being the actual living asswipe that misunderstood (don't worry, I'll be ok). I did see the references to still being around. I now feel silly for thinking this, but I thought that was you just saying you'd still be alive...
Anyway, I know we weren't close, but you were among the first people to sort of befriend me on here - admittedly you probably meant more to me than I did to you...but I enjoyed your work when I caught it. I'm glad you'll still be around in some capacity, and I hope indeed we do run into one another again sometime.
I think this and being alive are one. And I wouldn't know a life, being fully understood. I don't think anyone does.
I sure the fuck don’t 🤣🤣🤣
I lol'd at translator haters.
I admit that was a bit of a joke. lol
Come on though, cat fails are incredible. Always cheer me up.
Some people might write code into their bots to avoid power downers but from what I hear those types of curation bots often had that built in anyway.
Most votes are auto and auto votes don't care whether you are powering up, down or all around the pooch.
And the rest are manual. Like mine here. You can shit in my hat and I will still vote you. (Joking)
see what I did there! 😀
No, you can wear hats. Just don't set them down.
lol
I like when the dog gives the cat, "the look." And then the cat slaps it. I've seen that video a million times but somehow they can afford to always hire new actors, so it must pay well.
I'm totally fine with being dumped by autovotes, if that's the case. Thinking about it. It's actually motivating. True organic support has always been more up my alley.
Even if there's only ten people here, that's okay, plus the words don't go away, so maybe someday someone will stop in to say hey anyway.
Still, I won't be doing this often. No art or creative writing. I lost all interest in that, and constantly being reminded why.
Shitting in your hat sounds like a fun new hobby.
It's a good hat to shit in by all accounts.
I don't think it necessarily means being dumped by autovotes either. I think a lot of it has been amplified out of proportion. Some people have found a way to justify not voting others. It's not new, it's just what people have always done but a new reason. In fact not even that new as I remember a big whale went through a phase of downvoting people for that before. Which is far worse than a no vote!
Things do get twisted out of shape. To be expected.
The root of the problem is the general lack of interest in supporting content creators. It's treated like a chore and turns into people taking shortcuts to get out of doing work.
And of course, it's also a lot of work to clean up the mess that creates.
It's a feedback loop, creating undesired results.
The solution has always been, simple. Attract real paying customers. Any other platform that combines paying contributors and attracting a real paying audience actually makes money. A lot.
Here, if someone were to attract 10000 paying supporters all with 2 cent votes, people here would freak out. They'd tell the content creator they're earning too much and demand the 10000 become content creators so they can build their stake instead of buying it. Then they'd tell those 10000 people to automate upvotes and get paid to be absent. And this would help create the mess people love trying to clean up here. Then everyone is happy again.
I think tho that rather than people telling the 10000 to become content creators the 10000 tell themselves that they could do that and decide to have a bash.
It's always been a pronounced problem that because everyone can earn everyone thinks they should earn and do the others down in the crab bucket scramble
I need to find, the data. Observations are never enough it seems. That 10000 in this scenario. That would be similar to a content creator having 10000 supporting their patreon. Of that 10000, I doubt even 1% of them are content creators themselves. Or, of a group of 10000 who commonly tip streams, my guess would be roughly less than 1% stream and collect tips themselves. A group of content creators receiving tips or support on patreon, the money totaled up, I'd guess less than 1% of that goes into supporting patreon or tipping streams.
Similar pattern can be observed here. Of the 10000 content creators, I'd say on average less than 1% want to be content consumers. This is why, using my post as an example, there are less than 100 views. Since the odds are stacked against me, I don't stand a chance of building a community of 10000 people around my work. All of our followings are made up of content creators that quit years ago. It's clear content creators don't want to consume and support, due to majority wanting to either sell earnings or automate votes.
If I had the ability to reach outside and gather 10000 with 2 cent votes each, their added earning potential would be in the comment section. There would be 10000 and of that 10000 maybe 1000 would be earning on a regular basis in the comment section alone. Rough estimates. Just showing what's available to them and more suitable for their common behavior. That's a community of 10000 supporting each other.
Now, if 100 people reached out with the goal of 10000 supporters with tiny votes, we'd have a paying audience of 1000000 lurking around. So if 1% of those 10000 did attempt to be content creators themselves, they'd have a far greater chance of succeeding when compared to what the current approach offers. But not just them, everything these devs are working on. They'd have a massive consumer base to tap into.
Keep in mind I'm keeping the numbers small and round just to show what a small effort can do. Knowing what people want to do, knowing not everyone is the same, then giving them the opportunity to do what they want to do, creates a feedback loop offering desired results.
I know. I know. "Whatever, nonames." lol
"Whatever, nonames." lol
I did 😀
Ultimately for me I don't think we will ever see those numbers at least in the traditional blogging sense of the platform.
In about 2012 I created a sink in my work because they wanted to introduce... A blogging element to our intranet. It was sent as a way to share information and boost morale. I was part of a group say up to assess how amaze it would be.
I got in trouble because in one meeting I loudly declared guys, this is pointless, blogging is dead. It's been dead for years.
I was right then and I'm right now. That's why the bloggy aspect of this place isn't taking off and probably won't take off to the degree some people desire. It will always have a niche and that's fine but if people want this place to blow up they need to be looking at other ways. Like threads and ecency's thread like thing. And video, moahr video. Short form video.
Reading is for the olds 🤣🤣
I am actually happy with small numbers and small growth. The platform is bigger than blogging and could take off in many ways. Till then, I will keep on writing and shooting the shit.
AI has ushered in a new world, I love it. I also believe that Hive is a censorship free social media