AI slop is the output of all generative AI, full stop.

Slop itself is anything produced for the sake of being produced. Something without feeling or soul, just more content for the content machine.

Like, yes it does take some level of skill to “prompt engineer” the AI and get it to show you the thing you want, but it’s still not a distinctive style, it’s still not your style. If you say, “sloth astronaut” I can imagine that in my head in my own way, there’s no value in producing an AI image. As far as I’m concerned, an AI image narrows down all the possibilities of my own imagination into the specific piece of slop from the slop machine. If I wanted to see it, the point would be to see an interpretation in someone’s style.

I can’t remember where I saw this argument recently, it was something coming out of Capcom saying they’d use AI for background details and people citing specific examples from Pragmata maybe? Things like vending machines and environmental details that could be streamlined with the help of AI. But even these small details are places for environmental artists to shine. Show off their skills, hide small details and world building, and little in jokes. It may not be much but it adds to the overall texture and flavor of the product. It does matter.

AI is slop, is slop, is slop. There’s absolutely no reforming it and if I detect even a whiff of it, I’m out.

On the other hand, those opposed to AI also have a subgroup that wants anything and everything with AI in the name dead, without any regard to what it is or what it does.

This might be a bit of a hot take, but I don’t really see anything inherently wrong with this. The scientists and engineers will continue doing their serious work regardless of public opinion, and while some of them may have tangentially benefited from from increased interest and funding in the field, most of it is going to these corporate LLM models which are taking up all the oxygen in the room.

That’s a bubble that needs to burst. I think it’s more important to keep public sentiment rightfully focused in that direction. Let’s face it, you’re really not going to be able to educate the general public on these nuances. The field at large will persist regardless.

I don’t have any sort of synesthesia, but tried to engage with the question. Was utterly unable to summon an opinion of my own, but reading through other answers yellow seems to “click” the most.

Without reading into this a single bit further I’m just going to assume it’s because you have an incredibly flat ass. My condolences

Not sure how well it counts for being about trains, but the first one that leapt to mind for me was Jethro Tull - Locomotive Breath

It’s at least got a lot of train allegory.

Things won’t get better if you don’t take responsibility for improving them. Sometimes you just have to do it scared.

That said, be VERY careful putting your trust in this other person. Without knowing any more about the situation it could be perfectly fine, but it’s also relying on this other person to improve your situation and still not yourself. Do you have an exit plan for if things go badly there, too? Do you have friends or a support network? Even if this person is genuinely well-intentioned, even the best relationships can go sour. You can still invest in this relationship while preparing for that possibility, especially since you’re new to this and say you’ve never dated before.

You’re still young, I know the world pressures you to feel like you should have it together by 23 but the world is pretty rough these days. I assure you there will be more opportunities to come. Focus on finishing uni, too, I think you’ll find that will open a lot of doors.

Wishing the best for you.

I’m old. One of the elder Millennials who grew up on the internet. I stubbornly didn’t use emojis in any context for a very long time, but I did use emoticons sparingly =)

Eventually as more people of more diverse generations started using them in conversation with me, I adapted to kind of speak where they were at. Like you I mostly use them as punctuation at the end of a sentence to help clarify intent if I don’t think it’s clear otherwise. They can help be an indicator like that

Most importantly though, I think we all need to understand that there will never be a really clear consensus on this. We are going to have to learn to communicate with each other where we’re at and if you disregard someone solely on the style in which they use emojis you risk disregarding the opinion of some very intelligent people. And I think, personally, you’re gonna come off as a bit of a dick about it if you feel the need to post responses telling them so. I can’t change your opinions for you but maybe keep that to yourself.

Further notes: I actually include a lot of emojis and ANSI color sequences in my programs and scripts. Drives some people crazy but I find it really helps make some things more readable and draw my attention to things (taking care about what effect this might have on downstream ingestion of course, but most things handle emoji competently these days)

Owls are adorable. They always look so stern and serious and then you see these videos of them on youtube taking a bath and realize they’re just little goofs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA2Iyw6V9gk

Ask a dozen people, get a dozen answers. I think the main tenet is just acceptance: if someone says they’re X species, then it’s true because they say it. And by that grace when I say I’m Y, so be it. I think most people realize it’s a silly game, but in that respect it’s a bit of a litmus test in that can you just play along or do you gotta be a dick about it?

Personally I used to take it a lot more seriously when I was younger. Staunchly a no-nonsense red fox with a back story etc. etc. I thought mythicals and hybrids were goofy, but it’s tiring to be so uptight. Tried to identify heavily with one thing because I thought that’s how you built a sense of self but eventually learned you can just do whatever you want, there are no rules. Cringe is dead, sparkledogs are unironically back in style.

Now I’m a sea slug. I don’t know if I think that reflects who I am or maybe just more what I want to be: stoic, cute, utterly devoid of bones. It doesn’t really matter so much as it’s just a thing I like. A little character to pour some of my creativity into. Whenever I’m having a bad day I can just go online and look at pictures of sea slugs and cheer myself up because it’s that simple. Sometimes I get a message from a friend with a picture of slug in it that says, “look it’s you” and it makes me smile. It’s a little bridge that keeps me anchored to the world when I got nothing else going on.

Posting from pawb.social, I don’t want this to come off as too self-aggrandizing, but there are two communities people should start watching and learning from for the post-corporate internet: furries and speedrunners.

1. Furries: If you’ve ever wondered why there seem to be so many furries in tech and cyber security, there’s a good reason. They were some of the first digital natives to colonize the early internet; use it to connect distant weirdos into an online community. The core pillar of the fandom is simple and non-commercial: be a silly animal. This is an important distinction to the Bronies and Juggalos (no shade, much respect, but I gotta call out what’s true). The overt horniness and subversiveness of the culture makes it impossible for marketing and outside interests to take hold. We chased Tony the Tiger off Twitter (RIP). I’m not saying things have always been perfect, I think in the earlier days of the 90’s and 00’s the push towards extreme inclusiveness prevented pushing out a lot of the worse elements, but the community has been much better about calling these things out these days. Extremely queer, socialist, and anti-fascist - these are the elements that build that strong sense of support.

2. Speedrunners: While it does break a bit from the core pillar of not being centered around commercialized products, I do think there’s still a great amount of leeway with how those products are used in the context and also good integration with the indie community. There is no one central product. And out of that has sprung an extremely organized, self-policing, self-motivated group. These people invest hours meticulously tearing code apart by the seams just because they can and if there’s anyone I believe can save us from AI through the shear brute force terror of human cognition, it’s the speedrunners. It’s no coincidence that the largest organization and charitable event is also very queer and inclusive with significant furry overlap.

I know furries are weird and not for everyone (although I do think it’s odd you don’t know what animal you’d be … come on, you don’t have one in mind?) but I think it’s very much worth taking a look at the community from a higher perspective and figuring out why it has succeeded and will continue to succeed and how you can bring those things to your communities, whatever they may be: climbing, cycling, coffee, crochet, DIY, etc.

Theoretically, I’m all onboard with the night shower arguments. I’d love to be a night shower person. But I don’t think I’m physically capable of waking up in the morning without the shower routine.

I appreciate how angry this post seems to have made some people. Maybe I’ve just been in the furry fandom too long. I feel nothing anymore.

Halo.

Look, I’m not saying it’s a bad game or you’re a bad person for liking it, but man, I have never been able to see the appeal. As someone who has played a lot of shooters (mostly PC) and read a lot of sci-fi, I find it exceptionally mid. And I’m not really fan of the militaristic reverence vibe it’s got going on like … bleh. Does it actually criticize this more as the series goes on or is it really just all oorah? I also kind of blame it for the trends of vehicle segments and only holding two weapons that leaked into other FPSes at the time (looking at you Bioshock Infinite - WTF), although I do admit that’s more of a petty, personal point. I respect that it pushed FPSes and online multiplayer forward on consoles, but when people tell me it’s their favorite game with one of the best storylines ever I’m like, “But have you played any other games?”

I used to work in a game store back when Halo 3 released and I was a much more fervent hater back then, I decided I was gonna play the original Marathon games so I could be a hipster snob and hate on them, too. Actually ended up really loving them, though they’re only loosely related, I think they had a lot more going on stylistically and story-wise even though the gameplay was more primitive.

I retry every few years, but never get very far. Maybe I should skip to 2 because one is so bland I get bored of it.

None. I’m a Millennial, I will burn any corporate loyalty I might’ve had in a heartbeat if you so much as think of crossing me. Do you know how many industries my generation has slaughtered in cold blood?! Watch your step and pray I don’t notice you enough to decide you’re next.

I revisit Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind every few years when I wanna get my guts all twisted into knots.

I think when Kaufman is left on his own he’s too much of a bummer and Gondry on his own is just too far out. But somehow they come together in a perfect balance with Jim Carey in perhaps his best serious role, IMHO. The soundtrack really takes it the extra mile.

I appreciate it because Joel and Clementine come off as just two kinda fucked up people having a kinda fucked up relationship; very relatable. Neither is perfect or completely at fault and the film very much leaves it up to your interpretation if they can or should work together. I don’t think it has a happy ending, do you? Compare that to something like 500 Days of Summer where you’re really supposed to sympathize with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character but mostly I end up wanting to push him into the mud. Hard.

The subplot between the doctor and his secretary is maybe a little unnecessary? But Kirsten Dunst is amazing so whatever.

I wish I had stayed.

OK, I apologize. That first post was overly negative so allow me to offer some real hope and advice. (I was sitting in the middle of class when I typed that up and needed to get it off my chest. I moved to a new country and started uni again, which is maybe not the best way to deal with burnout. It’s helped in some ways but hurt in others. That’s my problems though, a story for another time.)

Let’s go back to the fire metaphor for burnout, I think it’s more apt. Not necessarily through any fault of your own, that fire is burnt out now. Someone careless came along and doused it in gasoline until it flared up and dissipated. That first fire was built out of the kindling of you, not intentional but incidental over a lifetime as you slowly piled things onto it. This new fire you need to build is going to have to be more intentional. You’re going to have to pay attention, put thought and care into it. That’s going to take practice and possibly several failures first until you get the hang of it, don’t give up.

This new fire won’t be the same. Not in composition or how it burns; that’s just life. It’s OK if you need to take some time to mourn that, I think it’s only natural. But just like a forest fire sweeping through it leaves fertile ground for new things to grow again. Time and patience which sucks because it runs counter to a lot of what we’re dealing with, but just know it as a fact.

For something concrete to begin with, focus on your self and your interests. It’s hard to sit down and focus on just reading a book when you feel like there are so many dozens of other things you need to tend to, but just take that time for yourself. Speaking personally, if you’re anything like me you got some part of yourself wrapped up in that job/career even though you didn’t want to, even though you didn’t ever see yourself as that kind of person. You need to fill that back in with yourself and if that takes the form of books, or comics, or movies, or videogames, or bike rides or whatever silly thing it is that makes you happy, you just need to do it. Trust me, this is important.

Keep going, you got this.

I’ve been thinking about this for a long while. I like to use the analogy of RAM because I’m a nerd.

When I was younger I felt like I had 32GB. I couldn’t even fully load it, I was into so many things I’d stuff it full and still be running at half capacity.

As I got older, more processes began to run long. Taxes, relationships, the tedium upkeep of life. Then work takes a big bite. You have the space so you run it. 24GB, 24/7. And they run it hard.

But then it gets burnt out. It’s just … fried. You can’t load things into it anymore, they don’t hold. Your memory or attention or energy or some combination of all three fail and the task fails. You had 4x8 but now you’re running on 1x8. For everything. The life tasks build and then there’s more: all the services, the nags, the endless notifications on endless apps, a million group chats buzzing by and the ever growing fascism.

But it’s not RAM. You can’t just go to the store and buy new stuff and replace it. You can’t just take a week off and relax and expect that it’ll start working again. It’s … unclear what will make it work again. Is it just broken now, forever???

You try to load stuff into it anyways, because you have to. Hobbies you used to enjoy. But the memory is still no good so it gets corrupted. That thing you used to enjoy now feels like an obligation and trying to engage with it feels like the memory of touching a hot stove. It slips away. And the entire social group you built around that interest? That slips away, too. It’s all too hot to touch, you don’t have the room and it feels bad: it’s tiring and draining and too much for you anymore.

I used to think burnout was a check engine light. I’d notice it go on, I’d recognize it happened, then I’d get to the shop and fix it. It took me years to figure out what was wrong and I still don’t know what to do about it. And the work just isn’t designed to let you deal with this stuff.

It’s kind of a weird phenomenon that’s been developing on the internet for awhile called, “just asking questions”. It’s a way to noncommittally insert an opinion or try to muddy the waters with doubt, “Did you ever notice how every {bad thing} is {some minority}? I’m not saying I believe it, I’m just asking questions!” In this instance it seems that by even asking for a clear statement of value you are implying there may not be one, which is upsetting.

To be clear, I’m not accusing you of doing this, but you can see how stumbling into a community that takes their own positions as entirely self evident would see any sort of questioning it as an attempt to undermine it. Anything short of full, unconditional acceptance of their position is treacherous.

It’s worth thinking about because it’s a difficult and nuanced problem. Some things are unquestionable like when I say I love a bad movie or that human rights are inalienable. Still, I should be able to answer sincere questions probing into the whys of that and it really comes down to an assumption of bad faith or not.

There was a crow that hung around the parking lot of my old apartment a lot. I saw him every day and started offering food for him. He used to follow me jumping from tree to tree and would often call out for my attention if I didn’t notice him at first. I won’t claim to have really understood him, but you spend enough time around crows and you can kind of start to tell what they sound like when they talk to each other, when they’re talking about you (or nearby humans in general), or when they’re trying to talk to you.

Eventually I taught him which patio was mine and he’d come up to the balcony railing and eat treats. One day I noticed him there just chilling with his girlfriend, which was kind of weird. You can’t really tell crows apart well unless they’re sitting next to each other but he was big and fat like an American football and she was sleeker like a fighter jet. He eventually left and she hung around for another hour or so, very strange.

Well, next day they show up with their new fledglings. He proceeded to pick up the crackers I had left out for him, dunk them in the nearby bird bath to soften them up, then feed them to his kids. And yes, it was him doing the feeding. I think he was just showing me off to his girlfriend like, “It’s cool, I know this one. It’s safe here.”

https://youtube.com/shorts/ilKrUOOEUwU

Hah, it’s funny you ask this because I’ve been dealing with it lately.

US citizen living abroad at the moment. I have a middle name which is just, you know, vanity or whatever like it is for most people? My father’s father’s name but it doesn’t have particular meaning to me and I don’t necessarily like it. Still it came to be on my passport and I can’t recall if I did it purposefully, or if I was just filling out information, or if it was required because it was on other documentation like my birth certificate.

However it happened, it’s on the passport so now it’s on all my official documentation here in the EU. It gets picked up by every system and I can’t drop it, I have to keep propagating it because it needs to match the official documentation. It gets put in with my first name so now I’m just getting used to being “First Middle” “Last”. This is made more unusual by the fact that the country I’m in does not have middle names. All my friends are like, “Oooh, exotic!” and it’s like, no … just silly American things …

Generally though this doesn’t affect anything whatsoever, it’s just an oddity. I have simply never thought so much about my own middle name in my life and now it haunts me.