Wayne Gray

No, the other one. The "quicklier" comment.

That's so odd. I can't find that original post you quoted now. Huh.

Poetry is a bit mathematical. Syllable count, rhyme, flow ... it probably makes it easier for AI to write something that passes for what a human can do with poetry than it could for a story. But it's still limited. It's limited by what has come before. There is literally nothing new it can produce. Not yet. It's all a derivation of what has been. "Nothing is new under the sun." That or something close to it is often quoted to describe creative works. It is ABSOLUTELY true of AI. While a human being ... something with a spark, and talent, and dreams ... can, and will produce something that has not been seen before. Something beyond the touch of silicon. AI is wild. But it's soulless.

"I feel like we could make it go quicklier." YouTuber teaching me new wordies.

On Facebook there's a flood of AI bots. And they're mining each other's posts for content, and it's getting more and more and more weird and inhuman-sounding as time goes on. I find that reassuring. The "uncanny valley" is working against AI in this case. We can tell that something isn't quite right with the responses, and the more AI relies on AI to produce content, the more it will resemble gibberish. It's like a weird electronic incest without a brain to produce new content.

you're right. It doesn't meet the criteria of "plagiarism". Too many legal challenges would destroy them, so they avoid the definition. It uses other works (art in particular) to develop its "own" work. It's like tracing a picture, but altering just enough to make it your own. Not line for line ... but using common structures, and recycling them to produce something "new."

It mines other works to produce its own. ChatGPT is well known and reviled for this. They cried foul when Deep Blue mined ChatGPT directly for a lot less money (orders of magnitude less), but they have no leg to stand on, considering that's what they did to build ChatGPT.

This is true. I used AI to help with a single scene (brain stuff is complicated!) and the thing wanted to write a whole story for me. I just cut out the rest and used the part I needed. But yeah ... it'd be easy to "write" a whole story using AI. They're all over Nifty. I've gotten good at recognizing them, and they seem to take the same tired paths ...

And if you're looking for another by tim, Changes is so good. But one that seemed to sneak under the radar was The Searcher. If you like fantasy at all, it's very much worth a read.

This one is pretty fun(ny)! I loved writing this with mister tim. A great time. I hope you enjoy the rest of it!

I'm a gold card member at Lotion Depot. I've been encouraged to buy stock by those who know me best. I'm not sure a humidifier would take care of my particular issue, though. I prefer hands-on, low-tech solutions to problems of this sort. Call me old-fashioned!

Self care! Yay! Time for bubble baths, wine, chocolate, and lotion. For dry skin ... of course.

That is a LOT of yarn!

Those pups are lucky you love them. They also know it ... which means they do stuff like this. The little devils.

Strip poker is fun for everybody. Even the losers.

😈😼😉😮☺️🫠

Well, we knew it'd happen. This week, I've been tapped by our CFO to help in a dispute against one of the federal regulatory agencies governing us and our funding. The short of it is this: an audit found they had overpaid us for our lab expenses to the tune of $200,000 a year for five years. In other words, they planned to shave a cool million off our next payment and withhold $200,000 a year from here on. The reasons are utterly bogus. Claiming we're double-dipping. Part of that is claiming our low reference lab costs must be due to us billing patients. This is actually because I implemented a process to rebill insurance after the first denial, which knocked our lab bills down from $15,000/month to $2,000/month. So they're trying to penalize us for doing BETTER than average with the funding we received. This is a way for the federal government to wrest money away from federally funded clinics without legislation. Without any kind of law changes. Just abuse of the audit system, and hope clinics just fold. We're taking them to court to appeal. But currently, I've got a million-dollar anvil over my head. I'm the guy in charge of our labs. If we somehow lose this appeal, then that information will go to the board of directors. And they'll ask the guy in charge of the labs what happened. Our appeal is on Tuesday. I've provided all the information asked of me to our CFO and lawyer. So. I'm going to get drunk now.

That was ... magic!

They are wild critters. Like the Zen masters of the animal world. They chill out with predators, turtles, and birds. Just hanging out. Usually with their eyes closed in the sun. It's wild. Oh. Like this.

Good golly ... miss molly.

Mike, sometimes we must suffer for our art. And sometimes our husbands do too.

Thank you for the kind words. If I had been more consistent over the last two years, I might agree with you. But I've just now gotten my mojo back. Maybe give it a bit. And there are some titans in those groups. Down the line, perhaps. But not yet. Let's see if I can maintain a consistent posting/writing schedule first. Still. Thank you.

Thanks for reading and for commenting on the story! Yes. I like how you worded that. A titanic global shift is underway. In the face of violence, a pacifistic, underground movement is slowly chipping away at what had become a fascist state—one intent on annihilation through any means necessary. And through the determination of our heroes, it is succeeding. I like where the story leaves us. We get to see the overview of the big things happening, as well as the individual stories in Cairn Seventy-One. I think it's a good way to show macro and micro levels in the world. Thanks again.

Thanks for the great words and for reading! Super glad you liked the work. There will be more to come from me down the line.

Thank you for the nice words and for the read! Ah, I'm glad you liked the vignettes. I didn't want to tell that the worm changed things when it was so easy to show it. I had to stop myself from adding more of those. There are thirteen hundred (population of Cairn Seventy-One) little stories possible, and I had to moderate myself a lot there. LOL I appreciate that you spent time on this one. Thank you again.