Libb

I learned to sew in my early 50s. Very helpful. I also leaned to… solder (small electronics) which is also a great way to save a lot of money, and to generate so much less waste.

listening to the other(s).

I heard a bunch of explanations but most of them seem emotional and aggressive, and while I respect that this is an emotional subject, I can’t really understand opinions that boil down to “theft” and are aggressive about it.

Why the anger?

How do you earn a living yourself? Or even better, what is your most precious hobby? Whatever it is that you love doing for the love of it (that’s the definition of a hobby) try imagining being told one day, out of the blue: ‘Guys, my fancy but completely soulless computer can do as good as many of you. And it can do it in seconds. Wanna compete?’

Now, imagine it’s your job and not your hobby, the way you earn your living (and pay your rent/mortgage and those always more expensive bills) and imagine being told 'That way you used to earn a living? It’s gone now. It instantly vanished in a magical cloud of 1 and 0s. This AI-thing can do in mere seconds something that would take you weeks and it can do it well enough that quite many of your customers may not want to spend (a lot more) money to pay you for doing the exact same job even if you do it much better. How happy would you feel about that?

So, yeah, like you said it’s kinda ‘emotional’ topic…

is there an argument against models that were legally trained?

Being 100% sure there exists such a database that contains no stolen creation, and then that AIs were indeed restricted to it for their training is already something worth debating and doubting (the second it is not open source), imho.

There had been a similar problem a few centuries ago, when photography first appeared many painters rightfully considered photography a threat to their business model as one could have their portrait (edit: or have a picture of a landscape) made in mere minutes (it was a longer than that, early days photography was far from being as quick as we know it but you get the idea).

What happened to them and their practice?

1. Some painters had to find rich sponsors that were OK to pay in order to get a portrait that would be more unique than a pĥotography (I know what I would prefer between having my photo taken by even a decent photographer or, say, a painted portrait made by Sargent), others found niche domains were to could still earn a living, while others simply went out of business.
2. Others decided painting could be much more than just being realistic like it (mostly) was before photography became a thing and they quickly started offering us amazing new kind of paintings (impressionism, abstract painting, cubism, expressionism,…)

And here we are in the XXI century. Painting is still doing fine in its own way (exposed in art galleries and in the home of rich people). There is also a lot more hobbyist painters that will paint all they can including realistic scenes no matter how much ‘better’ a photo could be. They don’t care. Next to those, there are many photographers taking countless photos (many of which being worthless too), some of them trying (and many failing) to earn a living selling them.

is it something past the saying that AI art is lifeless?

Maybe it will get better, most probably it will, but so far I feel real sad for people that are unable to see, to feel and to understand how lifeless and how clueless AI art is.

Edit: typos (yeah, this was handwritten without the help of any AI :p)

It seems to me that the world is designed to put us down instead of lifting us up. And it feels impossible to escape it since I’m too weak to overcome all these external things that are designed against me.

You’re not too weak and they’re not designed against you, they are against all of us.

It’s so hard to get out and live a life outside off these temptations cause they’re everywhere and give you this easy and fast pleasure that’s craved by our simple primate brains.

They’re hard but you may realize you’re stronger than you think the moment you decide to focus your attention on one single thing at a time. Aka start small. Focus on one single thing and work on it to make it better. I had many addictions a few years ago and some were real, real bad. I did not fight them all at once. I picked one, allowing myself to ignore the others and whatever issues they were causing, and moved to another only after I fixed the first one.

How much could this be a personal issue and how much could it be societal related?

Can they be separated? I mean no one exists as a person in a vacuum. We’re social beings living among our peers.

I keep an eye on it, from time to time (I really enjoyed testing it) ;)

Why are we expected to keep up with the news on a daily basis?

If it is not faster? What’s the lifespan of any buzz news, nowadays? 15, 30 minutes? 1h?

That being said, we may be expected to do that and many people may even be willing to do it, aka gobbing news all day long, but we’re not supposed to do that. At least, not if we want

to have some understanding on what’s going on in one’s local area, one’s country and in the world.

Understanding takes times (to read more, to hear various point of views) and effort (to conciliate those various view points we hear/read, and to try to understand it (aka make up our own personal opinion) instead of merely reacting emotionally to it.

Time and efforts are two things media certainly don’t want us to practice because it will cost them a lot of money and probably, for a majority of them, their job too. Because:

• Readers/listeners/viewers that are used to do efforts on their own (instead of being spoon-fed) will also expect better quality news (instead of the actual trash that’s falsely labelled as news) in order to be satisfied. It happens that better content does cost more money to produce than trash content (it requires more work, more time and smarter people, none of those being free or AI-replaceable).
• In depth understanding of better content also requires more time to understand it. Which mean people will consume less news articles/videos/whatever and that news outlets will sell less ads.

Too bad, those medias and the army of people working there need to sell as many ads as they can in order to pay for their salaries, they need us to be as stupid as we can be so we will swallow whatever cheap turd they can produce without even blinking an eye. We may even ask for more.

It’s all about choice.

Our choice as individuals, to waste our time on such shit content or to spend it on better content, and our choice as a society, deciding what we value more between a better education and information (which takes a lot of work, takes time, and cost more) or being raised as braindead morons that will happily clap hands everytime they’re fed whatever the latest buzz-turd is so dumb that even the stupidest AI can write it in mere seconds?

Most news are clickbait focused on the negative, making us feel depressed and feeds our negative emotions. I wouldn’t be surprised if the news actively contributes to the mental health crisis.

Most news can also not be that. It’s a choice. Not an easy choice, but a choice nonetheless.

The news I read (I have quit watching TV in the early 00s when I realized what a trash can it was morphing into) are not like that, or barely are. But it does cost me money and time to make them not be clickbait trash. Which is sad since many people can’t afford one or the other, if not both. While other people simply don’t want to be bothered.

What are your thoughts?

There are still great news papers out there, and websites, coming from all political ‘trends’… Which incidentally is another of our serious weaknesses, one that is also over-exploited by trash media: our allergy to anything that would not perfectly reflect our ‘values’, aka if a news outlet is not blue, red, green, grey, pink, whatever our ‘color’ is then it’s worthless. It is not. But, here again, realizing that there a re great news outlet even in the ‘facing camp’ will take time and efforts (to read them and to spot the few that aren’t trash).

A simplified system settings?

I’m an older (in my 50s) macOS and Mint/Cinnamon user but I also know after testing it I would love to use KDE (it’s a great DE) if it was not for its billion of settings one needs to navigate through in order to turn off the many visual effects and whatever I don’t need that are activated by default, and the few things I need to activate that aren’t ;)

Preparing food at home isn’t “fast food,” either.

It certainly is not, and that’s my whole point. You don’t need to go to a fast food to eat a burger. That said, it’s not that long and it can also be a lot of fun doing it with your spouse, like we do, our with friends. A lot more fun ;)

And if’s because of time constraints one goes fast food, one can easily prepare something (much better) at home for their next day lunch. My mom used to that for me when I was a kid, like most moms would do back then, and I have done that countless times when I used to work normal office hours and had a very busy job.

Most certainly, but I would also not call that a fast food, not one that serves handmade burgers. Those are true restaurants.

We had one a few block block from us, it was real excellent. When they bring the plates to our table (we don’t have to queue, and the place was nice and quiet, and comfy) it’s almost like looking at a wonderful mix of poetry and painting that’s made out of bread, with those little sesame seeds, overflowing salad, the pickles, onions, juicy and thick meat (they have true vegan alternatives) and fries that don’t look like fat squishy toothpicks. Their burgers tasted good just by looking at them, and they’re even better when you would take a bite :)

But they’re also not that fast to prepare the burger, and a tad more expensive than the nearby McDo or whatever.

Idolizing the past (and long gone) ‘grandeur’ of some European countries is not the best way to prepare for the future.

edit: as a disclaimer, I’m European from one of those once important countries.

We have not gone to a fast food in the last fifteen or twenty years, if not more. Why would we? It’s not welcoming, the food taste like… cardboard, it’s rarely a pleasant place to eat, and people are often noisy. When we want to eat a burger, we cook it ourselves with fresh food. Yep, when we want to have some, even the fries are handmade. There is just no comparison.

I really need something fun to do that I enjoy.

You won’t know if something is fun if you don’t give it a chance. Have you tried anything already and how did it went?

so please recommend something inside my comfort zone

I don’t think you told us what was your comfort zone?

As an alternative, I can tell you what I enjoy or have enjoyed doing. For years, I was into making scale models. That was fun… because I liked that a lot (always was into war planes since I was a child). I’m very much interested in playing chess and DIY (fixing stuff, even electronics, woodworking,…). I’m also much into taking long walks (a few years ago I was barely able to walk at all. So, yeah, some activities can have life-changing effects). Learning foreign languages too (that’s how I learn(ed) English).

Above all, I’m a reader. I have been one most my life and will be one till the day I die. Do you like reading? Have you tried reading?

To put that question into perspective, I don’t think I ever really experienced real boredom in my life. It’s just alien to me. As a reader, I always have something interesting, exciting, or at the very least something fun to read with me. Like I told you, I love to take long walks but even when I go out for a walk you will never see me without a pocket book, just in case I need to wait and have time to waste. I also carry a notebook (I write) and often, I will also carry a sketchbook (I’m no artist, I just enjoy sketching stuff).

Have you checked where is located your closest public library and got your card to start borrowing books? In my country, France, they’re free for book borrowing (one needs to pay for borrowing movies and music only).

What books could you read? Well, are there some kind of stories or type of content you’re more interested in? Say, science-fiction or fantasy? Love stories? Historical or war novels maybe? Or would you find more interest in reading essays, history, sociology, or reading biographies? Whatever. If you really have no idea what light interest you, well, that’s one reason more to get your library card: most librarians are nice people who will welcome you and help you make your first reading steps, no matter if you’re a little kid that just started to read or an older dude like I’m ;)

Don’t want to go to the library and meet real people? No big deal, use their ebook borrowing service instead, you just need an account and a computer.

Robin Williams as the Bicentennial Man. The movie was okay; his performance was amazing.

+1.

I think instances that host certain communities have the responsibilty of setting a certain baseline for mods.

Once again, that’s something I could vouch for personally but me supporting that ideal would not make it a universal rule.

I think instances should be allowed to set their own direction but genocide denial is something I really can’t have.

That’s the reason why no one is forced to participate in any instance. I carefully select the communities I’m subscribed to and read, and then my home page only shows what’s new from those I’m subscribed to. Good luck finding any deniers content in that (or whatever else outrageous content), of they tried they would not last long… thx to the mods in those communities not being assholes and doing a good job.

And we’re back at what I was saying first, someone needs to do the work of cleaning the room. And it can be a lot of work, so not many people may be willing to do it.

In an ideal world your approach would work

I don’t think it’s idealistic, in fact I’d say it’s rather pragmatical: I say don’t try to police the whole Internet to get rid of those extreme assholes (that will never happen, no matter how outraged one may feel about their very existence). Instead, let assholes be assholes together, in their stinky corner of the web, just lets make we don’t have to read their shit content, or to breath in the same room as they do.

I may be wrong, but that’s how I consider the question.

How do you raise your voice in a community if you get silenced there?

You don’t raise your voice (making more noise rarely helps, imho). You raise everyone else awareness that something odd could be happening in regard to some people/you being silenced?

I have never considered the question (I try not to participate in communities where people abuse their power, or to discuss with people that consider a personal aggression any disagreement or diverging opinion) but the first things that come to my mind is that if you get silenced (that can’t be know for sure before trying to publicly post your question in the community), you can still post in other communities that you know members of the first community do read (or in communities created to raise awareness on power abuse, and ask for suggestions). And you can message other users directly to ask them to raise the question publicly for you since you’ve been silenced. And then you can create your own community and start posting: the public timeline is, well, public, anyone will have a chance to read your post. But, really, those are just the first few ideas I would consider if my choice would not be to avoid being in a situation like that to begin with.

but the users are being manipulated. The vast majority will never look at the mod log and never realise that the comments they’re seeing have been editorialised.

Hence, what I mentioned two times: the need to inform them by opening the discussion first.
Users don’t need to be gifted/attributed a new leader/mod. They need to decide by themselves if they need a new one, or not.

Also, if there is no clue that a comment has been removed/censored (isn’t there some default text displayed?), then that should be something to discuss with Lemmy’s devs as I don’t think deleting comments should be invisible.

The problem with the “freedom to do whatever you want” argument you’re making here is that one person (the moderator in question) has significant power and sway over what others trying to speak with similarly-minded people in that community are allowed to say. You need to use that community if there’s no other similar ones with an established & active user base which covers the topics that community is centered around.

Like i said, anyone is allowed to create a new community, that’s the whole idea. But one needs to be willing to do it ;)

Edit: that existing community one is looking to replace with a new one did not magically appear with all its members already subscribed. The mod had to make it so people were willing to participate and subscribe. So, should the creator of the new community. Like I said: one needs to be willing to do it… and put the extra work.

As such, it should be incumbent upon the moderators to strive to be as close to the ideal of “impartial” as humanly possible

That’s personal values. Values I may myself relate too but personal values nonetheless. And certainly not some indisputable truth that should be imposed upon everybody. At least, not in my mind.

It is perfectly reasonable for users to call out bad faith moderation when it happens

Indeed, exactly like I wrote earlier: if someone was ‘abusing’ their moderating power in some community I was part of I see only two reasonable options, both starting by raising the issue within the community, discussing it with other members

Then, actions can be taken. I just see no valid reason to appeal to some extra (new layer of) authority when all the power is already in the hands of the users.

Pilling up on authorities will never compensate for the lack of personal investment.

How are mods like this still allowed

Isn’t it the whole purpose of the fediverse to ‘allow’ anyone to do what the funk they fancy doing? ’ (within legal limitations, obviously I’m not apologizing breaking any law here)

I don’t know that community and have not much interest in knowing it more myself, but if someone was ‘abusing’ their moderating power in some community I was part of I see only two reasonable options, both starting by raising the issue within the community, discussing it with other members and then:

• If what I consider ‘abuse’ was pissing off enough other members, the obvious solution would be to deprive that person from their power… not by throwing them away or punishing them (how? In what name?) but by not using their community anymore. It’s Lemmy, it’s easy to start a new community with the exact same interest… but with a very different moderation policy (and a different moderator). There would be nothing that dude could do to prevent anyone from doing that or to prevent members from switching to that new community… leaving the dude alone.
• If not enough members in that community were pissed off by the way it’s moderated, or if I was the only one seriously annoyed by it, well, maybe that just means most members are fine with the moderation as it is and see no abuse in it. Then, the only question remaining to me would be to decide if I still want to contribute anything to that community?

I’m not saying that’s what you should do. I mean, I don’t even know if you just picked some random community to illustrate your point, or even if you’re a member of said community. I’m just saying how I would consider the situation.

Freedom goes both way: I can do whatever I fancy and do it how I fancy. But so can other people, even when I disagree with their ways ;)

the good old notepad,

That’s my preference.

Is it like complicated things or simple ones?

It is both. I take very detailed and heavily linked notes (through my own PKMS based on index cards) and I also use notebooks for quick notes on the go notes. Have been doing so for years. BTW, there is a community related to Note-taking/Personal Knowledge Management: !pkms@lemmy.blahaj.zone

I don’t use it to remember things (well, yes it helps with that too, but it’s not the main purpose) I use it to help me think and create new ideas/associations between existing ideas, infos, whatever.

More info on ‘my’ note-taking system (it’s not mine by any mean): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten

Edit: published too early an unfinished post, sorry ;)

seriously, fuck that and “them”

Maybe this (hostile and angry) attitude could explain some of the downvotes?