Tag: Big Ideas

AI-Generated Celebrity Images Are Getting Good Enough That We May Soon Seen A Deluge Of AI Celebrity Porn

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

They say that every new technological advancement is always used to make porn first and I think we’re careening towards a moment when we’re going to be flooded by AI-generated celebrity porn. We aren’t quite there yet — AI still can’t handle fingers — but I would say in about 18 months AI-generated celebrity porn will be every fucking where.

It is interesting that Emma Watson seems to be someone that all the horny nerds want to see with realistic, yet exaggerated proportions. In fact, to date, that has been one way I have been able to tell for sure that celebrity porn is fake — they all look like what some fucking horny nerd would like this or that female celebrity to look like.

A lot of female celebrities are popular because of their personality, just as much as they are for the size of of their bosom. And, yet, I keep seeing image after image on Twitter of Gal Gadot far more voluptuous than she is in real life. It will be interesting to see if, in 18 months when there is an obscene amount of AI-generated celebrity porn online, if the people generating it even try to stick to the actual dimensions of the women they so admire.

I have my doubts. Horny nerds can’t be stopped.

Of course, at some point in the near future, the law is going to step in. It seems clear that what to do about AI-generated celebrity porn is going to be one of the biggest tests of the courts. It definitely seems as though we’re careening towards a Petite Singularity just as The Fourth Turning is about to happen to us as well.

Good luck.

I’m At A Loss As To What To Think About Google Scraping Google Docs To Train AI

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is nothing short of panic on Tik-Tok from writers like me who use Google Docs. A number of people have Tik-Tok have urgently suggested that all writers take all of their writing off of Google Docs immediately and use Word instead (or whatever.)

I find this very curious for a number of reasons.

I understand where these writers are coming from, and, yet, I’ve actually looked into the scraping Google is doing and it seems a little too late to worry about such things. Now only is AI everywhere now, but I just don’t know how much my writing is going to make a difference if Google is scraping the entirety of Google Docs to train their LLMs.

Some of the hysterical talk on Tik-Tok seems just that — hysterical doom shit that assumes there’s some way to prevent, completely one’s words from somehow, someway being used to train LLMs.

But I will at amit that I just don’t know. Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe if I just turn to Word I can somehow, magically, prevent anything I write from finding itself in the maw of AI.

At the moment, I’m taking a very measured wait-and-see approach. While I understand that if I keep my writing on Google Docs that it may, in some way, influence Google’s LLMs, it’s not like my, specific writing and ideas are going to magically pop up somewhere and be produced by Google Movies.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that’s exactly what is going to happen. I just don’t know at the moment.

A Modest Social Media Proposal

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though we’re in a twilight of the gods moment when it comes to technology and, specifically, social media. We’re careening towards a brave new world of AI — even, maybe, a Petite Singularity — and, as such, all our notions about the nature and importance of social media will seem rather quaint soon enough.

And, yet, I continue to feel a bit of frustration over how bad social media is these days. I have a very specific vision of how one might bring the fun back to social media. But, alas, I’m flat broke, can’t code and have no desire to learn. So, in that respect, all my talk about this matter is just very prolonged bout of mental masturbation.

That’s why I’ve found a lot of joy writing a novel — writing a novel is something I can actually do using the resources I have at hand.

But back to my social media vision.

The key thing is my little social media daydream addresses the sweetspot of the using, say, Twitter. What I would do is actually have a paid editorial staff that would post to the service so as to make it really useful.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, the service’s UX would be inspired by the old Usenet Newsgroups. Each user would have the ability to create an endless number of Groups that they would Post into. This idea solves a lot of problems when it comes to managing not only different elements of your life, but also grouping subjects together in a meaningful way.

Of course, by definition, having Groups causes an inherent design flaw that would have to be overcome. I think one solution to this problem is the use of the traditional newsfeed concept. As such, while you would subscribe to a Group, there would be a way to cut through all the Groups and see an excerpt of individual Posts within those groups.

That would be one way to prevent the problems associated with no just Usenet News, but Reddit as well.

Another element of this concept that I like is how within each Group you would have threaded full-page Posts. You could have essentially a whole multimedia Webpage that was threaded inside of a Group. This part of the service opens up all kinds of advertising possibilities.

Anyway, baring something I can’t predict this all just a daydream. It’s too bad. I think people would really enjoy it.

The Curious Case of UAPs

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is a lingering mystery in the air when it comes to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. I find it astonishing that we honestly have no idea what the fuck is going on with UAPs and yet the idea has — to date- gotten zero traction in the public imagination.

Given just a little bit of thought, however, this is kind of bonkers. There are strange, powerful objects zipping around the skies of the globe and we have no idea what they are or where they’re from? Why is no one freaking out about this? It’s all very strange.

The most obvious explanations — that either a state or non-state actor has come up with some very, very advanced technology — doesn’t seem to fit what’s going on. So, there is the third, seemingly impossible option: these UAPs are probes are of non-human origin.

If we accept that the seemingly impossible is, in fact, what’s going on…that really opens a can of worms. And, yet, this idea doesn’t seem to matter to the general population. The idea that ETs are using probes to take regular looky-loos at Humanity should at least give people…pause for thought?

But, no. Nothing. Nobody cares.

It seems as though the only way anyone is going to care is if there is Hard First Contact with little green men landing on the front lawn of the White House. It’s enough to make one believe that if the government did release what it might know about ETs that…no one would care.

Only space nerds would get excited, everyone else would go back to fighting over the culture wars.

Where’s Our Vibe Shift?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It used to be that culture could change a lot just within the course of one decade. As late as the 1980s, early 80s was very different than mid or late 80s. And, yet, it definitely seems as though since 2001, cultural shifts haven’t happened as rapidly.

I’m old enough that if I look back over the last 20 years, I struggle to see how there has been any sort of major vibe shift. Yes, there have been blips of change here and there since 2001, but, in general any cultural changes have been rather subtle.

At some point over the last 20 years, something changed.

Could it have been the advent of social media because of the smartphone? Is that what caused everything to change? It’s all very curious. Or is it possible that we’re really, really overdue for a severe vibe shift.

And as such, maybe 2024 really is it?

Could it be that because of both the Petite Singularity and The Fourth Turning may happen at the same time in late 2024, early 2025 that, unto itself, could be the Vibe Shift that we’ve all been expecting. Maybe?

But it is very curious. Someone should write a 10,000 word New Yorker piece about this shit.

2024: A Perfect Storm

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems like everything is going to come to a head in 2024. Developments in AI will combine with the put up or shut up political moment of late 2024 – early 2025 and the fate of the entire world — of all of humanity — could be decided starting in 2024.

I say this because if the US collapses — or even simply peacefully transitions into an America First autocracy — everything is going to be upended. Talk about a New World Order! If the US leaves NATO and aligns itself with other autocratic states like Russia, Hungary and Turkey, then, that, unto itself could prompt WW3 to happen — killing about 1 billion people one way or another.

If America collapses into the chaos of civil war (Reds) or revolution (Blues) the same thing will happen — a billion people will die (at least.) If all of this happens, then the issue of AI will be punted down the road until America figures out of it’s going to become Trumplandia or if we’re going to establish the Third American Republic.

At the moment, it really could go either way. It really the fuck could. No fate but what we make and all that.

But if a Third American Republic is established, THEN the issues of global climate change and AI could be addressed collectively by humans as a species. That, at least, would be the idea endgame.

And, yet, humans are dumb and it could be that not even a New World Order after WW3 could get us to get our act together enough to address, collectively some Big Issues that face Humans.

But, I guess, we’ll see, huh?

Why, Yes, I *AM* Ready For My Close Up, Tik-Tok

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I just don’t trust Tik-Tok very much. So, when my view count suddenly started to go up from ~300 to ~2,000, I started to wonder What The Fuck Is Up. I, for one, haven’t changed anything about my videos and, as such, either nothing is really going on other than some tweak in the We’re-Not-Reading-Your-Mind Tik-Tok algorithm or Something Is Up.

This could all change, of course, but it’s a brutally hot summer day, so I find myself idle musing if maybe Tik-Tok is somehow fucking with me. Maybe Tik-Tok is trying to either bait me into using their business account feature or they want to Tuhn Me Intoa Staah!

Now, remember, at the moment, I’m a total nobody. Total. Nobody. So any additional attention to me for any reason –even you, reading this blog post — is Of Note to me. I just don’t really get much attention in the real world and I’ve reach a point where I’m invisible to anyone under 30.

Anyway, lulz, nothing matters. But it is somewhat amusing to imagine a situation where I’ve caught the eye of someone at Tik-Tok to the point that they want people to know about me and my videos.

But that — just like me being unnerved by the idea that Tik-Tok can read our minds — is just regular old crazy talk.

A Butterfly Effect?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am always looking for weird ways that changes in society can change other aspects and I think it’s at least possible that all these laws regulating porn online might cause some unexpected changes.

For instance, is it possible that if it’s a lot more difficult for young people to see porn online, that we might have an uptick in raunchy movies? Or even maybe Playboy might increase in cultural relevancy? Or something like that? Something whereby some of the shitty developments in our culture might be fixed because there’s not a constant stream of easily-accessible porn online?

Or not.

Maybe I’m overthinking this too much. Maybe what I’m noticing says more about me being an old man than something that is easily fixable by the butterfly effect. But it would be nice if maybe some of the fun of pop culture that has been drained out of it because of the “woke mind virus” came back.

I don’t blame the rise of “woke” culture for the lack of T&A and general fun in pop culture, but I’m kind of desperate. It would be nice to have the joy that was found in 80s and 90s American pop culture come back in a big way.

But, like I said, maybe this is it. Maybe we’re in a real life Black Mirror episode where we can never have any T&A in raunchy movies and we’ll just drift into a future where all of our movies are either superhero movies or the occasional low budget horror movie.

Overthinking Dua Lipa’s ‘Naked Dress’ & Her Desire To Be A Hollywood Actress

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Any rumination on Dua Lipa’s “naked dress” has to put it in context. For all the buzz around the dress, it’s not THAT naked. Don’t get me wrong, it’s rather revealing — and gorgeous just like Lipa herself — but other women, like Kate Moss and Rihanna, have shown more sheer skin in public in real terms.

To me, the point of the dress is to generate buzz….in Hollywood. Lipa is telling Hollywood directors that she’s ready for her closeup because she’s not afraid of showing T&A on the big screen. Which, of course, reminds me of how Tay-Tay will probably never get her EGOT because if she showed ANY T&A, her fan base of liberal white women would grow so enraged that that would break the Internet.

Dipa has perfected the art of being sexxy in a way where she doesn’t actually show what people think she’s showing. If she’s not wearing a skin-tight Mugler one-piece that has some skin tone stripes to it, she’s grinding on a mic stand in a very covering faux mini-skirt.

And, in real terms, she’s barely showing areola and it’s very clear that she’s wearing a very-wide thong under the dress. If she was really in a naked dress, all there would be in covering of her mons pubis would be a lot of strategic dress sparkles.

So, like I said, to me, this naked dress’ true audience is Hollywood, not us nerds. She’s trying to take her career to the next level by being an actress. She’s already in the Barbie movie, so it would make a lot of sense for her to push with all her might fully into being a full-blown movie star.

The Misogyny Directed Against Phoebe Waller-Bridge For Her Role In ‘Dial of Destiny’ is Shocking

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I found Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s role in Dial of Destiny to be one that established her as a Hollywood star. And, yet, from the way some commenters talk, you would think that not only did she suck, but that she took over the movie in a “woke” attempt to hand the Indy franchise over to her.

Now, here’s the context — there was a massive amount of bonkers chatter on YouTube that the time travel element of the movie was originially meant to be a way to turn Waller-Bridge into Indiana Jones by erasing Harrison Ford’s version from time altogether. They really got themselves worked out into an anti-woke Hollywood lather about this possibility.

And…then…it didn’t happen.

They claimed “victory” over the evil forces of Woke Hollywood, but I have my doubts. While I understand the fears — that definitely does sound like something Kathleen Kennedy would do to Indiana Jones — I just am not prepared to believe that was ever seriously considered, much less shot.

But, who knows.

The key thing to remember is I think, ultimately, the issue of who to turn the Indy franchise over to will be mooted because of technology. Soon enough, our digital assistant will scan our face, determine our mood and give us a very specific Indy movie that is completely different anything anyone else is watching at that particular moment.

It seems a foregone conclusion at this point.

I do wish, however, that Waller-Bridge could get her own franchise playing Dr. Susan Calvin of the I, Robot short stories. That would be great!