#Yes lots of art is used as investments by the rich

[fandomsandfeminism]

I went back and forth a few times on how exactly to respond to you with the best faith intentions. This is my best attempt.

Do you really think that any artistic creation is "nothing"? That someone taking the time to, in this case, literally develop a new pigment and then intentionally crafting a piece that showcases this pigment *for the first time in human history* is "nothing"? Even if you don't like the piece conceptually (and acknowledging that you haven't seen it in person), do you think that art is...nothing? (Or just art that you personally don't like?)

Do you think that IF a piece of art was created with the express intent of generating income for the artist, rather than as some kind of personal passion project, that makes it inherently lesser art? (Because that's going to cover everything from commissioned art like the Sistine Chapel, to art produced for mass market, like The Great Wave by Hokusai.)

Do you think that art should only generate income for an artist if you personally like it? Or that art should never generate income and thus only be a hobby for the wealthy who can do it in their leisure time?

Do you think art should only exist if you personally like it? And that your taste in art if so objective and universal that you personally are the best arbiter of what art should exist and/or generate income for the artist?

It is ok to not like a painting. It's ok to not like an entire style or artistic movement. It's ok if it doesn't speak to you or you don't get it. It's ok to not really care enough about it to try to learn about it or engage with it. It's ok if you find it trite and overly meta.

But when you start attaching big moral and ethical statements to why an entire collection of artistic movements are bad, you end up playing rhetorical ball with some very dubious arguments about the value of artists and their work.

abstract and modern art haters are sooo snobby like klein literally Created an entirely new pigment and then painted a canvas in a way where the brush strokes wouldn't be visible. the insinuation that people with no skill could reproduce that is so annoying because unless you are skilled at color mixing and painting you definitely couldn’t lmao

[amypihcs]

Mr Sherlock Holmes (2.0 - der Doppelgänger)

Here we go! It's sunday and ready for some more hound of the Baskervilles! Of course, put on your yaoi goggles!

First of all, Holmes and Watson had a very nice little date at the picture gallery

And Watson, honest man as he is, cares to inform us about his beloved's shortcomings about art. I'm sure they often joke about it!

Now back to work! Just gossiping with the Hotel's reception

Not gossiping, ofc, GETTING INFORMATION. You can't change my mind on Holmes being one of the best gossips in London when he feels like that!

Now we did get some int- WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING NOW?!

They nicked ANOTHER boot?!

They did!

well, someone stops the american, pls?

We have a CASE to solve! And Holmes is so, so happy and invested! all very nice!

NOW. Sir Henry decided to go to Devonshire at the end. And there's nothing we can do about it. But still we have to put set stuff straight. Like, you know you're dogged, right?

DOGGED?! WHAT? BY WHO?! W- AAAH

Okay, do write this telegram, there's noooothing that can go wrong!

BTW, -getting some tea-, tell me about this Barrymore!

LET ME GET THAT AMERICAN BASTARD'S NECK I'LL TIE IT INTO KNOT.

SPOILED RICH BRAT, NEVER HAD TO CARE FOR A FLAT, HAVE YOU? YOU'D KNOW THAT EVEN KEEPING SUCH A HALL LIVABLE TAKES ONE HECK OF A JOB YOU- -i am forcibly shut down-

Now inquiring for a motive.

Mortimer, lad. That is suspicious to say. a lot. That is EXACTLY Holmes' job and he's doing it WELL! How much money did Sir Charles have at the end?

Holmes and Watson both going 'the hell? do people with so much money EXIST?!'

As Jeremy reminds us:

And it DOES! That's one hell of a motive! It's close to a million of motives!

NOW! You SHOULD go, sir Henry, but not alone!

And i SURE can't come... i am... BUSY, YES, SOOOO BUSY!

They agree for leaving on Saturday and the investigation goes ooooon! Two telegrams arrive to prove that two ideas can't work and yes, let's take it PHILOSOPHICALLY!

We still have one more threat in our hands! -Holmes giving Watson tiny kisses -

Here's the third thread!

Nothing against you my man! Just few answers, you had a guy on with you, yes, right. Ah, he said he was a detective.

Anything else?

WHAT IN THE EVERLOVING HELL?!

Okay. Damn. Okay. Time to send in some fencing metaphors! Damn. three on three gone!

it IS an ugly and dangerous busyness. Holmes will be very very worried until it won't be solved. everything will be well!

We'll see how it'll go in the next episode!

[alpaca-clouds]

Cyberpunk and Solarpunk

Someone wrote a comment in a retweet under my last post about solarpunk. About how maybe Cyberpunk is more suited to motivate us to work for a better future, than Solarpunk is. Because Cyberpunk can show us, how bad it can get, it can be a warning.

My issue is, that for the most part it isn't.

Now, don't get me wrong. I adore Cyberpunk. I basically grew up in Japanese Cyberpunk especially (which I like a lot more than Western Cyberpunk - but the reasons are to complex to discuss here). But I think for a plethora of reasons it does not work as a "warning".

Part of the reason is, that the dystopia of Cyberpunk is not that far away from reality anymore these days. Even in effective Cyberpunk, that really goes into the Late Stage Capitalism... It shows a stark divide between rich and poor, state violence, rule of coorporations, end of ecosystems. Yes, it is more heightened than our reality, but it is all that we see in our reality right now and... we are kinda getting used to it. We are getting used to all the horrible things happening right now, because we feel powerless and our minds do not know how else to deal with it. So they will just chuck it of as "normal".

The other reason, why I think, Cyberpunk fails, is, that it is objectively cool. And a lot of people, who consume Cyberpunk media, do not engage with the dystopia, but just with the power fantasy of being a cool street sam with a lot of awesome augmentations. They want Cyberpunk to be real, not to prevent it. Because to them, it is mostly a really darn cool aesthetic.

And a last reason is, that in the end Cyberpunk does not offer solutions. Half the point of the genre is a sort of hopelessness. In most Cyberpunk there is no big happy ending. The happy end is, that the characters get to survive. Maybe, just maybe, the characters manage to bring down one coorporation or at least one corrupt CEO. But the most the characters get, is, to survive and maybe kiss a love interest. The point of Cyberpunk is the hopelessness.

But you cannot build a better world from hopelessness.

Which is, why I see Solarpunk as so promising - and am at the same time afraid of it turning too much into an "aesthetics only" movement. Because Solarpunk at its core is about reclaiming optimism for the future. It is not (only) an art movement, but first and foremost a genre of both fiction and activism.

If you look into the Solarpunk Manifesto, you will find that, it is about optimism and rebellion against the current system. About the things, that we so desperately need right now.

It is supposed to offer those solutions, that Cyberpunk does not want to offer - or rather that Cyberpunk thinks are out of reach.

Because here is the thing about Solarpunk: Yes, it is Science Fiction, but a lot of the Science it presents is available today. If states were actually to invest in it, we could have clean energy by 2035. That is not unrealistic. Because the technology is here, we just need to use it.

Degrowth, which is another core tennent of Solarpunk, is also possible. And it does not need to mean "live bad", as so many publications try to make it out.

Building local communities, too, is possible. The reasons we lost local communities, is, that the current system we live under, does not want us to have those communities - because communities allow us to organize and retake our power.

Those tennents have been there in Solarpunk from the very beginning. And it is quite frankly frightening to see, how the movement gets kinda taken over by people, only being there for green aesthetics.

This is not meant to be escapism. At least not just that. It is supposed to be a root of activism.

[weiszklee]

You know how certain university programs aim to not only give you knowledge and experience but also to instill certain attitudes into you? Typical examples would be doctors and lawyers. It's one thing to approve of a lawyer defending a murderer and trying to get them free on a technicality, it's another thing entirely to be the one doing it, to invest a lot of effort and a portion of your time on earth on it. I don't think you can do this without strong but rather unusual convictions.

Anyway, I think I got a certain attitude from university, too, it's just less consequential, but one of the consequences it does have is it alienates me from a lot of the would-be cultural critics on here, because the attitude is so very different.

For context, I studied Creative Writing (with Art and Theatre as secondary subjects), which basically builds on a Cultural Studies base, with focus on participatory observation and self-reflection during creative practice. Yes, this was a mistake (I'm not rich! What was I thinking?), and yes, I am glad I made that mistake.

The attitude I got from that, and for which I am very thankful, and which is so very different from what seems to be popular here in certain circles, is to suspend judgement, to find everything interesting, to accept and embrace the existence of pretty much every cultural phenomenon, and ultimately, to look for ways to learn something useful for my own creative process during it.

A lot of people on here are so judgy as if it's their only lens through which to view the world, and I never know how to react to that. Like, this is just not a helpful attitude. Your sneering is preventing you from asking the actually interesting questions! I don't care if you think Taylor Swift is cringe or how you find her song writing or if you like her singing. These facts can only help me understand you better, and you're not that interesting. I'm interested in the culture all around me, and Taylor Swift is part of that culture, and I want to know why. If you're not interested in answering that question then why are you talking about her at all?

I guess I could re-apply my attitude and accept the existence of hater-culture and try to understand that. But y'all don't seem like very happy people, so trying to dive deeper into this phenomenon looks like a miserable exercise. Haterdom can be productive in a way, it obviously fuels a lot of posting, but ultimately I think it is a creative dead-end.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HOW TO STARTUPS ARE REALLY LIKE

Because they haven't tried to control it too much, Twitter feels to everyone like previous protocols. However, startups usually have a fairly informal atmosphere, and there's something very pleasing about small things. Another way to fly low is to give you bigger abstractions—bigger bricks, as it would if you were relying on formulas you didn't understand. Well, that may be what you want. For example, if a reputable investor is willing to invest on terms you'll take without negotiation. Every investor has some track they need to move along from the first investor who commits as low a price as they need to move along from the first conversation to wiring the money, and you need to do what you want to think about which will actually let you get the most done. We get all the paperwork set up properly or you're just launching projectiles. When people hurt themselves lifting heavy things, it's usually because they try to lift with their back. But times have changed. If you're raising money from many investors, roll them up as they say yes, and the visual arts is the resistance of the medium. The fashion for the name Gary began when the actor Frank Cooper adopted the name of a tough mill town in Indiana.

It may work, but it won't be the last idea you'll have. But if you have no ideas. So what tends to happen is that they flake. For example, any work of art that does its job well, doesn't require you to pick out a few individuals and label their opinions as correct. Tell them that valuation is not even the thing to optimize. You can see that in the way a pilot does when flying through clouds. People who worry about the increasing gap between rich and poor evaporate. Once you start getting investors to commit, it becomes increasingly easy to get more to. And since risk is usually proportionate to reward, if you write them in Lisp? The great fortunes of that time the leading practitioners and the people who voted for Kerry did it as an example of this view: 80% of MIT spinoffs succeed provided they have at least a couple days considering different ideas, instead of thinking only of yourself. Is it a problem if you work in sales or marketing.

Could it be that, because in many cases the language layer won't have to change at all. What we really do at Y Combinator is get startups launched straight. There's a market for writing that sounds impressive and can't be disproven. There's another thing all three components of Web 2. Most of the groups applying have not stopped to ask: of all the lies they told you during your education. What you really want is a pool of local angel investors—people investing money they made from their own startups. If that were true, he would have been for two Google employees to focus on that problem. 0 conference would presumably be full of geeks, right? We can afford to spend a lot more expensive to start a startup.

But really what work experience refers to is not 1950s hardware, but, say, making masterpieces in comics might seem to the average Frankish nobleman in 800, and report back to us. The most important, small things can be perfect; big ones always have something wrong with the senator's argument, you should take money from investors only if they require no convincing, and are so excited by it that they race through a huge percentage of the newly discovered territory in one lifetime. Reward is always proportionate to risk, and very early stage startups are mobile. Instead everyone is just supposed to explore their own personal vision. Part of their brain knew there was something there; it just didn't percolate all the way up into conscious knowledge. In other words, he's now rich enough not to have any teeth, and the greedy algorithm tells you what to do. And the best way to do business. Responding to Tone. It's an experiment because we're prepared to fund younger founders than most investors would. Or could have been implemented as a couple hundred lines of Perl; in fact, don't even ask for their email address unless you need to be solved. That is in fact the defining quality of Lisp: it was in order to make this so that McCarthy gave Lisp the shape it has. They tend to be suspicious of rich people.

Those are interesting questions. We spent three months building a version 1, then f iterating rapidly. You have to get them to move. That's the scary thing: fundraising is not merely that you'll spend too long on it or raise too much. Be inappropriate. Their living expenses are low. There are, of course. Instead of version 1s to be superseded, the works they produced continued to attract new readers. Why does he think this? There are plenty of similar ones in the grownup world.

The business person represents the voice of the customer and that's what keeps the engineers and product development on track. Joe's has good burritos. Always be questioning. So it's wise not merely to be nice to investors who reject you, but I have to do to get rich, the money you need, because a if you use a more powerful language enable you to write shorter programs? But we also raised eyebrows by using generic Intel boxes as servers instead of industrial strength servers like Suns, for using a then-obscure open-source Unix variant called FreeBSD instead of a real commercial OS like Windows NT, for ignoring a supposed e-commerce standard called SET that no one cares enough to disagree with, you may have to do well at that. We plan to mine the web for these implicit tags, and use them together with the reputation hierarchy they embody to enhance web searches. I grew up believing, this turns out to be a waste of time? If you don't and a competitor does, you're in a position of having to buy whole albums. And isn't popularity to some extent its own justification? Especially since tone is so hard that it's a new messaging protocol, where you don't specify the recipients. Thanks to Trevor Blackwell and Jessica Livingston for reading drafts of this.

The trends we're seeing now are simply the inherent nature of the web emerging from under the broken models that got imposed on it during the summer—so even college students can participate. But I want to know what they believe, but they are not likely to be the mistaken one. If you're an outsider, you're just one step away from getting things done. Experts have given Wikipedia middling reviews, but they have at least started to omit the initial Who is this guy and what authority does he have to write about a topic is a variant of ad hominem than actual refutation. No, they may not have explored. If it can work to start a rapidly growing business as software. As an example of a useful, general idea, consider that of the controlled experiment.

It would hurt YC's brand at least among the innumerate if we invested in huge numbers of risky startups that flamed out. Till they do, you don't have to prove you're going to have an increasingly prosperous society without increasing variation in individual productivity as time goes on. As with contrarian investment strategies, that's exactly the point. If that's what's on the other side of this coin is that it's good enough. But it's ok to use a TV as a monitor. More remarkable still, he's stayed interesting for 30 years. But if the founders mistrust one another, this could cause some friction. It's kind of strange when you think about it, because his email was such a perfect example of this view: 80% of MIT spinoffs succeed provided they have at least a random sample of the applicants don't seem to have fully grasped what I earlier called the central fact of philosophy: that words break if you push them too far. They're far better at detecting bullshit than you are at producing it, even if few do per capita.

[terrence-silver]

What are some scenarios that could lead old man Terry to meeting his future beloved? Like where would that era of Terry most likely meet his beloved?

---

The most obvious answers could be something like; at the Country Club! Some exclusive Gala! A high-end garden party! A Synagogue! An art exhibition! An elite charity event! A corporate meeting! An auction! A Yacht! An invite-only gentleman's joint! An Opera, for all we know. Anywhere from Korea, Tahiti, Japan and back again! Anywhere in the world, globetrotter that he is. Wherever the rich and the famous might mingle --- a crowd where Terry very much belongs and finds himself at home with. But, I think that answer only covers a small percentage of the actual truth.

Why?

Because I think Terry Silver, unbeknownst to most anyone, mingles everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Yes, often times dressed as a common, unassuming bypasser just minding his own business; now you see him and now you don't. Sometimes, he's driving a run-down blue Ford truck posing himself as a hard-done-by Dojo owner downtown and other times, decades later, clearly not having changed all that much from his old ways, he might just be some smartly dressed, not at all shabby looking old man at the local Mini-Mart, intimidating Daniel Larusso between the produce aisles and leaving without buying a single thing. That's just a casual Wednesday for him. Nobody suspecting this is one of the wealthiest men on the West Coast, if not much, much further.

I think Terry Silver likes to scope out ordinary people, just for the sake of it.

He likes to scope out ordinary places too.

I think he enjoys the sport of getting down there with your commonplace Joe-Schmoe, and just observe, like one observes a Safari of animals. He likes to feel the pulse of everyone around him. Seek out opportunity, even if that opportunity rears its head in the form of some kid he bribes at a random club in 1985 to tactically hit on some girl so he can agitate Daniel into violence, right before making his quick escape into a back-alley in the dead of night, having caused a ruckus on the dance-floor. Yes, why not. It is fun, and Terry Silver seeks fun. It is also an investment and he seeks that doubly so. He seeks chance. Out on the street, in unexpected nooks and crannies or at a parking lot at midnight, while the very next day, he might be on the cover of Forbes as the most, ehm, Charitable Man of the Decade, and an incidental pedestrian would be none the wiser. Or they might just see his face on front page and think that that looks awfully familiar to that one guy, borderline thinking they've gone mad and are imagining things. That can't be same person, right? That might amuse Terry, in the most perverse and chaotic sense. Give him a sort of power --- over his environment and everyone around him, even mere strangers he has no intention of seeing ever again, except for what research and amusement they provided in the moment. The gleeful satisfaction that he's so big and so important and yet nobody knows. Not unless he wants them to, being entirely in control of the narrative and his identity --- and how it is perceived. That his ability to camouflage, disguise and hide himself with just a few cleverly chosen fashion choices and a difference in bearing is that great that it can trick people. The world is a sort of playground for him, and day-to-day people tend to be hilariously prone to being bribed, threatened, influenced, swayed, talked into things and used. Their lives are raw and interesting in ways that are hard to describe and it is a special type of voyeurism Terry Silver has undoubtedly indulged in in one form or another all his life.

Didn't Roman Emperors occasionally disguise themselves to mingle with the plebian rabble too? Terry fancies himself similar. In fact, he knows he is.

He also might be something of an adrenaline junkie; where just minding his own business stripped down from the strappings of his wealth might be genuinely engaging and good sport for him because he gets to know exactly how he will be viewed when nobody knows he's a Billionaire. His fascination almost experimental in nature, bearing a mischievous, childlike curiosity, if not an off-shoot of his tendency to pathologically lie and fabricate whole entire personalities, changing himself and his colors like a chameleon. Almost like he's goading people to show him exactly who they are. What they're like. What they're true nature is when faced with just some guy they've nothing to gain from out there.

So, beloved? Beloved might meet their King Cobra anywhere.

Anywhere at all.

A prospect both exciting and in equal measure daunting.

Because one never knows...

---

(I write more about this topic in my fanfic right here x)

[pynkhues]

I would so love for Lestat to be telling Louis AND Daniel his story--so he and Louis are on an emotional journey of him revealing more of himself to Louis, and Daniel is there to dig deeper and ask the hard questions...that dynamic would be so fascinating and rich.

Yes! I think that's definitely a possibility, and would make a lot of sense in that it could ground the shift in focus from Louis to Lestat by offering that sort of narrative security of the interview + Daniel.

I do wonder if they'll lean into the change of pace though. Given stuff that Rolin's been saying - in particular that s3 will feel like Lestat's hijacked the show, haha - it does feel like they're going to lean into the tour, which has made me wonder if they'll maybe structure it as a tour diary / mockumentary. It'd be a big swing, but I think the writers all like to take those, haha.

I've actually been thinking a bit again about where Louis' positioned going into s3, which has in turn made me think a lot about the changes they've made to his character from the books. One of the ones I've been percolating on a bit since the finale is that they've actually given him a lot more professional acumen and agency, and in doing that, made him more professionally compatible with Lestat.

Being a business owner was vital to his s1 arc, not just in how the writers used it to double down on the limitations forced on Louis by his race and sexuality, but how he was able to leverage the social mobility Lestat offered being both white and rich into broadening his business and working in spaces he always knew he could thrive in. That shift from the plantation in the books to Storyville and embedding Louis in music, venue ownership and management, and, well, talent management too, is a really interesting one, and the fact that the writers seemed to double down on that in s2 with Louis being really a self-made millionaire through investment in both art and real estate (of which the latter could potentially be venues too), actually gives the writers a lot of options to pursue in how Louis stands both individually and in relation to Lestat when Lestat inevitably becomes a performer again.

I doubt they'll go down any like, proper management route, haha, but it's an interesting area of the story, and could be a pretty interesting flip of their s1 dynamic a bit.

[borathae]

Sibiiiiiiiii! Thank you!!! I 💜 you!!! And yes please write the Greece trip/ Kook’s trip and tell us where else these hot vampires own property! 😩😩😩 As if they weren’t hundreds of years old and hot as fuck, they own villas and castles and houses all over?! 😩😩😩 Please give us as many HCs as you want!

Of course they do 😏😩 I mean djsjs not all of them obviously. Hear me out

Jungkook is the BROKEST vampire ever. Because of his curse, he couldn’t ever get a real job which in return meant that he never aquired enough money to invest it in passive income. So that man is as broke as one could get jsjsjs.

Hobi has decent amount of money. He came from a upper middle class family and saved enough money to invest in a small passive income, which has gathered a good amount these days. But because he is still technically only in his sixties, his wealth is very much in human levels still.

Jimin is the third brokest vamp of the bunch. Example given: how he had to live while he was still persumed dead. I mean, one could argue that he was in hiding and didn’t want to risk getting found out, but there is also a good possibility that he is simply broke in vampire terms. Most property he owns, Tae either bought for him or they bought it together. And then there was also the whole part of where he had to live as Namjoon’s slave for centuries, so he didn’t really have alot of opportunity to, you know, buy property. He does have a very healthy sum on his bank accounts though, mostly because of the shared property with Tae and because Tae is tranferring him money on a monthly basis.

I would place Seokjin next. This man was already wealthy when he was still human and had two properties and some factories/warehouses as well as ships in his human years and he also invested in a lot of start-ups which bring in a lot of money these days. He is actually a huge stock holder in the mobile phone market and has his fingers in other techonological fields as well. For properties he owns the one Sanguis spent their "frat years" in, owns a house in South Korea and bought Emma her own shop in town so she could expand her perfume business. He also owns an apartment complex where he gets constant income. Fun fact? OC actually rented an apartment in the complex when she first moved here, which is why she never got in trouble for randomly stopping to pay rent. She and Seokjin laugh about the coincidence these days. He gets most of his money from his countless shares though.

And now this is where it gets hard to talk about because damn those vampires are RICH jdjdjs they're old, they've seen too much and they got way too much money to spend.

Taehyung I'd place third. He's both share holder in many businesses, owner of multiple art galleries and possesses property which is used commercially, as rentals or as his private escapes. So passive income is very much guaranteed on a constant. He owns a homely cottage in the Austrian Alps, owns a chateau at the coast of France and a small farm in the French countryside, owns a little Greek ocean house and invested in apartments in Paris, New York, Hong Kong as well as London. If he spends money he spends it on new property, promising shares and other investments. If he spends fun money he spends it on trips, whatever expensive item suits his taste, art and fashion. He also regularly wires money to Jimin and ever since recently, he opened two separate accounts for Jungkook and OC where he also makes monthly deposites. Trust that this man does not feel any change in his numbers with those new tranfers. And also that he LOVES spending his money most when he can spend it on his darlings.

And then there is Yoongi. Woof woof. I would say that he and Tae aren’t that far apart actually despite their age difference. One must consider though that eventhough Yoongi’s been alive for ages, it was rather difficult to make money which can still be used in the 21st century. You get me? He does own a lot of castles though from the earlier days. The one they all currently live in he bought around the time of the French Revolution, but he owns another castle in Romania and one in Germany. He also owns a town mansion in Geneva and has a penthouse in New York, which he never uses. He won’t ever mention it, but he owns a private island in the Carribbeans and treated himself to a very secluded cottage somewhere in the deepest Canadian forests. He also forgot about it already, but he owns property in South Korea and a villa in Osaka. It brings in money as they are both used as rentals, but Yoongi hasn’t set foot in either of them in decades. He gets most of his passive income through the various rentals he owns as well as being shareholder in some of the biggest markets these days. He also regularly buys property and sells it again to a higher price. Right now he plans on buying a house with OC close to Meredith's place and he also thinks about surprising OC with her own small plant shop in town. He doesn’t transfer to their accounts, but he never says no. If anyone of the family wants something, he'll get it for them no questions asked. He will also regularly hand over his black card with a nonchalant "don't look at the numbers, princess" and he genuinely gets pouty when she wants to pay for something when he’s with her. This man always pays even if she sometimes complains about it. And no sum is ever too big for him. You remember those 100€ he gave her in Paris for a cab? Yeah that was the equivalent to a few cents for him.

I don’t know where to put Namjoon on the list because being stolen of his powers and then hidden from the world kinda just cut him off from his wealth. You know? I do believe though that in his prime, he was the richest. And also the one who spent his money on the most fucked up shit.

[fantasycorrupted-a]

actually, screw it. plot twist, a lot of Fíann's life was a fabricated lie and that's not even her real name. or her real self.

At least not unless you believe that there are different versions of you and that timetravel is possible.

And Flyn Farrell had been, more or less, forced to adopt this belief as a part of her truth.

Not that it was entirely false, of course. Timetravel was possible. The little compass watch that had taken her to the pirate ages, the device that she - or rather Fíann - had found, was real. Fíann Foley wasn't. Flyn Farrell, yes, but not Fíann. Not entirely.

Driven by her year-old interest and experience in playing music and video games, Flyn applied for work as a music composer (and later writer and concept artist) at a video game company which, much later, turned out to have shady reputation. It would be the first time she'd put her studies to more serious use... and it was nothing like designing a board game, which had been what she had been doing for a living until then. Aside from the martial arts lessons.

She had worked at a few smaller companies like that before. Smaller teams, projects that were great yet did not become the next hot famous thing everyone was seeking - but the games were memorable, and the teams were happy with that. Sure, she did get almost uncannily focused and was sometimes so invested in her work that her life stayed on the back burner, but that was good. It meant she liked her job and cared about it. Right?

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple". And that was not all of it. The plan to replace pre-existing supernatural beings with fake ones - as well as some humans who were being too loud and uncomfortable for the government to deal with - had been in motion for a few years by the time Flyn had been collecting experience at work (and not just in Ireland, too, but, slowly, across the whole world). She had gone through life with just the occasional swim, as a mermaid, and she had put most (but not all) of her suspicions to sleep. She was one of the merfolk that slipped through. And not only because there were few who could break her curse of immortality, if it was a curse at all.

Merrick Murchadh was real, as well as their relationship, their friends (some of which would later take his ex-girlfriend's side, and some would stay), and Flyn's mental illnesses. Unfortunately, that part was very much real. Granted, Merrick was under a different name from the one he had in Flyn's game - naturally, much like Flyn herself... and with a far more reputable occupation than lying about spending his rich parents' money (his father was a businessesman, though he had made Merrick follow a path similar to Flyn's) - but he was real, just like Flyn and her friends themselves, and just as insane as he had been in Flyn's game. His company was one of the biggest competitors to the one Flyn worked at, and, claiming falsely that she and her colleagues had stolen an idea originally theirs, Merrick was motivated to bring her down.

In Flyn's game, „Merrick“’s character ended up dead if the players chose the supposedly "better" ending between the two. In real life - similar to the worse ending - he was alive, and alive at a time when VR was being taken to a new level. Some video games and their results now affected real life as well; two such games were one Flyn had been inspired by and the one she had been working on, such a large portion of her game inspired by what her alternate self Fíann Foley had experienced that the lines between what was a part of real life and what was a part of the game were blurred. Aside from doing nothing of true importance, which he was scarily good at, Merrick was an assistant to the head of a company that sold artificial lives and experiences - holidays to places that could be far more expensive if actually experienced in real life, dates for people who thought themselves ugly and many other sorts of, well, fake realities - repackaged in the form of games, of course with some adventure and romance and whatnot sprinkled in, and what both of them were ultimately fighting for was to turn their projects into real, actual, enjoyable games.

That was, until the games bled into reality - until reality bled into the games.

[taylortruther]

chiming in on the billionaire discussion:

I'm a little conflicted about this. On one hand, do I think she needs all of that money to live a happy, comfortable, and fulfilling life? Probably not. Especially considering the fact that her music itself already is an investment that will likely continue to breed more and more money in the future. The rich get richer, as they say. (I'm also aware she's extremely generous and probably does more charity than we know, but I like to think that the argument still stands regardless of that).

But do I also think she deserves it? Also yes? Taylor fought tooth and nail to get to this position. The brand she's built, the steps she took, they're not something that's easily achievable and quite frankly, a lot of them only she can pull off. She earned all of this money through hard work, decade-long immaculate work ethics, and smart, risky business moves. You really can't look at the literal empire she's built and say this isn't well-earned.

I've also been seeing some arguments that entertainers don't deserve to be paid that much money, and that those amounts should be allocated to healthcare workers, teachers, etc., or funds for various social reliefs instead. While I definitely do agree that more money should be used for better causes, I also think that those conversations involve too many social economics, political, and other nuances to simply be boiled down to just "Taylor Swift becoming a billionaire is the reason we need xyz", y'know?

your last paragraph hits the nail on the head. that's why i say, in an ideal world, becoming a billionaire wouldn't even be possible because if lived in a society that ensures everyone is equally taken care of... salaries/earnings probably wouldn't even exist. and if we lived in that world, the value of art wouldn't be monetary.

in the framework of capitalism, is taylor better than a lot of them? yes. and it's why this ideal world we talk about, where billionaires don't exist or everyone has quality of life, requires a gigantic shift in mindset. like you literally have to imagine an entirely different way of life. and it's why using taylor as a model is helpful in some ways but quickly becomes pointless.

i'm getting very philosophical here, so hopefully y'all still follow me.

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie. By Jennifer Ahsley. 2009.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Part of a Series? Yes, Mackenzies and McBrides #1

Summary: The year is 1881. Meet the Mackenzie family—rich, powerful, dangerous, eccentric. A lady couldn't be seen with them without ruin. Rumors surround them—of tragic violence, of their mistresses, of their dark appetites, of scandals that set England and Scotland abuzz.

The youngest brother, Ian, known as the Mad Mackenzie, spent most of his young life in an asylum, and everyone agrees he is decidedly odd. He's also hard and handsome and has a penchant for Ming pottery and beautiful women.

Beth Ackerley, widow, has recently come into a fortune. She has decided that she wants no more drama in her life. She was raised in drama—an alcoholic father who drove them into the workhouse, a frail mother she had to nurse until her death, a fussy old lady she became constant companion to. No, she wants to take her money and find peace, to travel, to learn art, to sit back and fondly remember her brief but happy marriage to her late husband.

And then Ian Mackenzie decides he wants her.

***Full review below***

Content Warnings: graphic sexual content, references to involuntary imprisonment in a psych ward, violence, references to child abuse, references to medial malpractice, suicide, casual homophobia, anti-sex worker sentiments

Writing: On a sentence level, there's nothing really "wrong" with this book. Ashley's prose is quick and clear, and it didn't feel out of place for the romance genre.

Overview: I kept seeing this book on best historical romance lists, and I was a little hesitant to puck it up until I saw it was available at my local library. I figured, "hey, why not," and looked forward to satisfying my curiosity. After reading, however, I was extremely disappointed. While I do appreciate the effort of writing a hero with Asperger's (representation that is still sorely lacking in historical romance), this book felt less like a story and more like a series of random events, punctuated by sex scenes. Because we're told a lot of things rather than shown and the heroine isn't really striving for anything, I couldn't get invested in this book. Thus, it only gets 2 stars from me.

However, I do think Ashley relies way too much on telling rather than showing. A lot of information is delivered to the reader - about the Mackenzies, about the murder, etc. - and we're expected to absorb its significance right away. Unfortunately, that method doesn't really work for me and I had a hard time feeling invested. I would much rather have seen more scenes in which characters do things that tell me something about their characterization; for example, if the Mackenzies have such a bad reputation, maybe we could have a scene in the beginning where the brothers are out at a club causing mischief. Maybe instead of being told that Ian went to the boarding house and did all these things, we see him doing his own investigation so we both get a sense for his eye to detail and see him involved in the mystery plot from the start (that would make it feel less random, too). I understand the need for a romance to move quickly, but I still think there are ways to do that without essentially leaving your reader behind.

But credit where credit is due - I did appreciate that the Mackenzie's Scottishness wasn't eroticized and that Ashley didn't use some of the worst tropes I associate with a Highlander romance. While she does describe the Mackenzies as brutish and violent, she never seems to harp on the idea that it's because they are Scottish. Instead, they are solely responsible for their behavior, which was honestly refreshing. Ashley also never uses random Scots words, and aside from hinting at a brogue when characters like Beth remark upon how they speak, the dialogue isn't written in dialect. In my opinion, this made for a much easier reading experience and I wasn't distracted by bad or incorrect Scots.

Plot: The plot of this book follows widow Beth Ackerly as she is pursued by Lord Ian Mackenzie. Beth is originally engaged to a man named Mather, but breaks it off once she receives a tip from Ian about her fiancé's debts and sexual depravity. To her shock, Ian offers to marry her himself, but she refuses, deciding to spend some time in Paris while the scandal blows over.

However, Ian follows her to Paris, intent on making her want to be with him. While there, Beth becomes intrigued by his direct manner of speaking as well as his inability to read social cues - habits that have left Ian with a reputation of being "mad." Unwilling to deny her sexual impulses, the two begin an affair.

Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and roses; a brutal murder occurred the day that Ian left London, and the Inspector (a man who wants to take down the rowdy Mackenzie family) pursues Ian in hopes of pinning the crime on him. The Inspector tries to wrangle Beth into helping him, using every trick in the book to trap her into betraying her lover, so Beth decides to take matters into her own hands and solve the mystery herself.

I very much did not like the way the plot unfolded. Because of the prose style, I didn't feel like I was being invited along for a ride - more like a lot of things were happening and I didn't exactly understand why or why I should be invested. Events didn't build on one another so much as they happened at random, so I couldn't see where the story was going or retroactively understand how the narrative pieces fit together. It almost felt like Ashley was trying to spring little surprises on the reader to make the book feel more adventurous or thrilling, but those twists felt unearned and destroyed any feeling of suspense.

The only part of the narrative that seems to be trying to create suspense or to string a coherent storyline together is the murder plot, and that doesn't truly pick up until much too late and is over much too early. I will admit, I was curious when Ashley was alluding to certain details early in the book, but the mystery seems to lurk in the background and doesn't really compliment the themes of the romance.

Characters: Beth, our heroine, could have been incredibly sympathetic and something of an "underdog" in that she's a rich widow who comes from poverty. I liked that Beth was conscious of her precarious class position, and she was aware of the effects a scandal would have on her (compared to someone who was born into the aristocracy). I also liked that she was patient with Ian and saw the best in him, even when people like the Inspector were telling her to keep her distance. The only thing that made me not fall in love with her was the fact that she seemed to have no personal motivations; for a while, I thought a big part of her arc would be looking for some kind of security as a person who grew up poor but is now rich, or perhaps she wanted to escape the sins of her father, who was something of a con man; but she wavers between trying to act like a proper lady and ignoring the rules altogether so much that I was never quite sure what she was trying to do. Painting also doesn't feel like something she is truly passionate about, despite her decision to take art lessons from Ian's brother. It just kind of felt like Beth solely existed to be a support for Ian, and I would have liked to see how Ian enriched her life and helped her achieve her goals.

Ian, our hero, is somewhat of a mixed bag. On the one hand, I really like the representation; though it's never stated explicitly, it's fairly clear that Ian has Asperger's and no one really seems to understand it. I can't speak to how well it is handled, so my own input is that I'm happy to see more neurodiverse heroes is romance. But on the other hand, Ian has some traits not related to Asperger's that drive me up the wall. For one, he is overprotective of Beth and tries to bully her into listening to him. I got tired of it fairly quickly and wished the two had just worked together to solve the mystery rather than Ian trying so hard to keep her locked away. For two, Ian has a fear that one day, he won't be able to control his rages and will hurt Beth. All well and good - we love some character angst - but this fear doesn't come up until late in the book and seems to be at odds with his pursuit of Beth for the first 60% of the narrative. If he had this fear all along, why did he not think about it while he was pressuring Beth to be with him?

The Mackenzie Brothers were interesting supporting characters in that they all felt a little different, but we're bound by their love for Ian. I almost think we saw a little too much of them, but they were intriguing enough that I didn't always mind. Other aide characters were hit or miss. Inspector Fellows, the man who pursues Ian for murder, is ok; I understood his motivations and almost admired his view on the upper class. He was pretty wily, but never did anything that I would consider outright evil or even wrong, per se, so as a character, he's fairly inoffensive. Servants were spunky and admirable for their loyalty, but they mostly exist to make the lives of the wealthy easier, so they weren't exactly interesting in their own right. I guess if I had to name a character I didn't like, it would be the eldest Mackenzie brother's mistress, Mrs. Palmer, but only because she pops up out of nowhere and seems to only have a presence for 10% of the book (despite being a major player).

Romance: The romance between Beth and Ian was... confusing. Ian seemed to be in love with Beth (or rather, in lust) before even meeting her, and the two jump into a physical love affair so quickly that I didn't quite know what to make of it. While I can understand a story about a relationship that starts out as lust and grows into love, this one just didn't quite do it for me. I don't know if it's because everything happened so suddenly that there wasn't even enough time to see their chemistry build or what, but after reading, I was left feeling fairly rushed.

TL;DR: Despite The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie showing up on "all time best" lists, the lack of a compelling narrative and a heroine without much drive made this book a "miss" for me. While I appreciated the neurodiverse representation and lack of obnoxious Scots stereotypes, this book just didn't come together in a way that made me eager to read more.

[fanboyscribbles]

Part 2 of #Winter2023 watchlist goes to the non-isekai titles and I just love the diversity and richness here. #BuddyDaddies. This really reminded me a lot of SpyxFamily because of the whole assassins with a child setup. Must say, this is definitely my top pick for the season because of the chaotic dynamics between Rei, Kazuki and Miri. 10/10 #TheIceGuyAndHisCoolFemaleColleague. It's funny because it's quite literal. Himuro may have ice powers but it's Fuyutsuki who's always cool, calm and collected. I'm quite invested, especially after ep 2 where Himuro was 'melting' from the hot weather. 9/10 #TheAngelNextDoorSpoilsMeRotten. THIS. This has been making me feel all giddy because of Fujimiya and Shiina's practical relationship. This reminds me somewhat of Koibito Miman, HigeHiro, and Romantic Killer, but I'm keeping my distance because there might be something that could catch me off-guard. Also, Shiina may just be my best girl for Winter 2023. 10/10 #UniteUp. Honeyworks and Kami Kuzu Idol did a good number on me so I'm trying out male idol series now, plus this one's done by Cloverworks. So far, it's been cute, especially with ep 2 showing the bonds between sMiLea Production's newest group. 8/10 #TomochanIsAGirl. This one's got me laughing hard because Tomo-chan isn't used to acting girly and it seems that her crush Jun doesn't even see her as a girl. So yes, I picked this one over Nagatoro-san. 8/10 #TechnoroidOvermind. When androids start living alongside humans, have free will, and have the choice to be idols, this is what you get. I'm not too sold with the performances because of the art style but the mystery is what keeps me going. Something's off in their world so I'll see if I'd want to stick around. 7/10 Next batch of picks are mostly follow-up seasons and a 2nd cour. Overall, it's a nice season especially with my isekai picks. Though, Buddy Daddies, Ice Guy and Angel Next Door are my top 3 for Winter 2023. Will also be sampling Magical Revolution soon. So let me know if you have other title recos this season. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnay-IZvGBm/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cryptometaphor]

(incel stream turns quickly into crypto stream)

Me: I invited some people, hope you don't mind Axel and Dr Proof

Axel: Crypto-bros? Really?

One of them: You should be happy. Jim's a nice guy and would probs hire his friends for his business.

Dr. Proof: He doesn't actually have a business lol

Me: Actually I do. I got an appointment in the morning to discuss producing a card game that incorporates ai generated art with QR codes to battle other cards and ante crypto. Hence I'm asking the crypto bros some questions.

Doge silver: Like honestly this benefits us too. Your idea if it works, not only normalizes crypto, but turns it into the next fantasy football. Like, normies don't know shit about investing, but they do understand gambling.

Axel: Wait wait wait. So is this a card game or a gambling operation?

Me: Both. It's a card game, that gambles crypto.

Axel; And the cards themselves...

Me: Are QR encoded so as to reward Blockchain technology and installing a wallet.

Dr. Proof: OMGGGG everything about this sounds like a scam.

Axel: It's like one of those cheeseburgers you see on a food challenge where it's like grotesquely big. Like if this was the 90s, Jim would be saying "let's make candied pogs! Kids like candy, kids like Pogs! Give them diabetes and fucking die!"

Me: Yes. Not even yeth just unironically yes and this is gonna make me as rich as Jeff Besos and...

Dr. Proof: You will not be as rich as Jeff Besos.

Me: Ok fine, Duane Johnson.

Axel: I wish I had Jim's confidence. I swear I might actually have sex if I did.

Dr. Proof: Does Sarah know about this?

Me: Well sort of... She knows OF THE plan. I've theorized it before.

Dr. Proof: So she doesn't know.

Axel: "Your husband made candied Funko pops and increased gambling addiction by 200%!"

Me: Hey, it's something to be proud of. It's like being the CEO of a brewery. Imagine if I became chief financial officer for Hennekein beer. Like sure, alcoholism is bad, but...

Sarah: You're really gonna compare online gambling and card slop too beer? lol

Me: Oh hey honey!

Doge silver: The fear in Jim's voice.

Axel: Call Jim a narcissist, a schizo, an autist, it rolls off him like water off a rain-coat. But call him a bad boyfriend, and watch as he recoils, sinks, and says "I've been found out!"

Dr. Proof: Jim wants to be a Jew so bad lol

Sarah: I heard like the tail end of the scheme. Babe, really? Pachinko machines?

Me: But with cards! (I make up a Pokemon song)

Me: I gotta buy buy buy POKE-EE-MAN CARDS! (She giggles)

Sarah: Corrupting our first moments! Wait why am I surprised? You literally did try to screw me out of a trade when we first met because you didn't know what cerebral palsy was and thought I had downs syndrome

Everyone: DAAAAMN

Axel: I couldn't get away with that

Me still singing: and with the profits I make... With poke-eee-man cards. I could buy us a house, for my retard

Sarah: I will hit you lol

Dr. Proof: So how does the game work? (Explains it)

Axel: That's lame

Me: This isn't magic the fucking gathering. It's a simple script anyone could cold blind folded. One indian could run the entire project.

Sarah: Babe you're not gonna say that tomorrow are you? "ONE INDIAN is all it'll cost!" Like you were selling paper mache pyramids "ONE NEGRO"

Axel: It's a good unit of measurement for costs...

Sarah: No don't encourage him lol. I am torn as I do want that house and lots of babies. BUT you know this is only gonna feed into your arch nemesis Konami right?

Me: How so?

Sarah: Did you forget Konami is first and foremost a gambling company? Who makes a shitty card game that is a front for just casino bullshit? Who do you think is gonna start investing heavily in it if it takes off so there's no gacha competition?

Me: hmmm that's true

Dr. Proof: "imagine if the roles were reversed!"

Me: Well what I hate about the Yugioh card game isn't even how atrocious the design elements are. It's the toxic fans thirsty to win and the gooning

Sarah: Hmmm... HMMMM who wants to win more than a gambler?

Me: ehhh...

Sarah: May as well make little girl cards to seal the deal of a nefarious

Me: Ok yeah I'm evil. But I'm evil for us. (Sings) LET ME DO IT FOR YOU... KERMIE...

Sarah: LOL

Dr. Proof: How does that fucking work?

Doge Silver: I gotta admit. Even impressed by Jim's rizz like it's just a salad bowl of cringe memes and silly voices but she got it baaaadddd

Axel: It's the jawline

Dr. Proof: Nigga, Sarah hasn't seen Jim in like 20 years

Axel: He's got a jawline NOW

Doge Silver: I mean at least we're finally on the discussion of inceldom instead of how fucking great Jim is

Me: I am great

Doge Silver: You're just conceited and always find a way to weasel out of accountability

Axel: Jim is out secret weapon. A woman with a brain... (Plays better, faster, stronger for stream and everyone starts donating like crazy)

[kyewinslcw]

Name: Kye Matthew Winslow

Faceclaim: Glen Powell

Gender & Pronouns: CIS-man & he/him

Age: 35

Birthday: November 5th, 1988

Occupation: Con man pretending to be a Financial Advisor

Neighborhood: Midtown

Does your character have a secret? He's trying to con Wright Inc.

Would you be willing to have this secret used against them at some point in the future? Yes.

gifs credited to @sebegifs

Biography

Kye Matthew Winslow was born on November 5th 1988, his life a rollercoaster from the start. He never knew his dad, and his mom bailed when he was just 8 years old. That kicked off a string of foster homes for the next 8 years, leaving him with trust issues and a chip on his shoulder. When he turned 16, his mom showed up out of the blue. She swore she'd changed—wanting to make things right. Kye, hoping for some stability, gave her a chance. But true to form, she took off again a few months later, leaving him even more bitter than before.

After his mom's latest disappearing act, Kye met Robert Vance. Robert was a con man, no doubt about it, but he was also the first person to show genuine interest in Kye's well-being. Instead of pushing him towards college, Robert saw potential in the kid's good looks and street smarts. He took the young boy under his wing, teaching him the ins and outs of the con game. Kye turned out to be a natural. His handsome face and charm made people trust him easily, and he quickly became one of the best in the business. While he could con vulnerable older women with ease, he didn't enjoy it much. Instead, he preferred to set his sights on bigger, less sympathetic targets.

Over the years, Kye pulled off all sorts of scams. He ran investment cons, convincing people to pour money into fake businesses with promises of big returns. He'd pose as a financial advisor, using fancy words and fake credentials to swindle rich folks. He even got into identity theft, using his tech skills to create fake personas and credit lines. One of his favorite cons was playing the part of a rich heir. He'd sneak into high-society events, rubbing elbows with the elite. Once he gained their trust, he'd use those connections to sell forged artwork or set up heists of valuable pieces.

Despite his success, Kye couldn't shake the anger and hurt from his childhood. The holes left by his absent parents drove him to seek validation through his cons. It was this need for answers that led him to dig into his father's identity. What he found out threw him for a loop. His biological dad was in prison for manslaughter. While he had zero interest in building a relationship with the guy, one detail caught his eye—his old man was loaded. This discovery set the wheels turning in his mind, sparking a plan that would lead him to Wilmington, North Carolina. Armed with this new information, he decided to head to Wilmington a week ago. It was there he learned he had a half-brother named Lincoln Reid. This news stirred up a mix of feelings—curiosity about the brother he never knew, envy over the life he might have had, and a crack in the emotional walls he had built over the years.

He married Josephine Drayton about a year ago in Vegas, where she ran away right after. He didn't chase after her, but realizing that she also lives in Wilmington, he decided it was time he got some answers from her. He might not be mad at her, but there was a lot of confusion on his end since he never got attached to anyone. Yet, he was to her.

Now 35, he is gearing up for his biggest con yet. His target? Wright Inc., the company tied to his newfound family's wealth. For Kye, this isn't just about the money. It's about taking what he feels is rightfully his. 

tl;dr

Kye Matthew Winslow had a turbulent childhood. His parents abandoned him and he ended up bouncing from foster home to foster home. At 16, after his mom abandoned him for a second time—he met Robert Vance, who taught him the art of con artistry. He excelled in various scams, targeting wealthy individuals and businesses. Recently, he discovered his imprisoned biological father is wealthy and he has a half-brother named Lincoln Reid in Wilmington, NC. He also learned his estranged wife, Josephine Drayton, lives there. Now at 35, he's planning his biggest con yet against Wright Inc., the company tied to his newfound family's wealth. For his, this scheme is about more than money—it's about claiming what he believes is rightfully his. He has a golden retriever named Scout.

Wanted Connections:

(Wife) her: They should be all wrong for each other, yet somehow they fit perfectly. Josephine Drayton

Half-brother: Lincoln Reid.

People from his past: He could have conned them or known them from his ‘travels’ since he’s not the kind of guy to put down roots.

Enemies: I expect this man to have a lot of them.

Cyber Security: While he’s a conman, he’s really good at cyber security. Maybe your muse and Kye could have worked together—not knowing he’s a con man. 

Friends: He doesn’t have very many friend (for a great reason) but give this boy some friends.

Boxing: He boxes to keep fit and let out his aggression.

Gym Buddies: 

Neighbors:

[elliebell77]

lotta text under the cut (fanfiction (i was gonna post it to ao3 but i realized that i dont really have a plan for the story so itd probably just drop off after like 3 chapters again and i always feel bad when I do that because readers seem genuinely invested (what was i talking about again? Oh, yes, the fanfic. please ignore it. (or don't.(You are free to choose your own fate (are you still reading this??))))))

There was something intimate about the art of sculpture.

Perhaps this was borne of the collective species narcissism seemingly inherent to all humans, but there was just something about the whole idea that appealed to you. As though intelligent life were to say to the Earth "let me give you purpose. Let me chisel my image into your flesh, breathe my stories into your soul. Let you be the vessel for the expanse of my imagination, and an echo of my voice for the generations to come."

…Of course, writing all that down makes it sound like total hogwash. Still, there was no harm in finding meaning within a world seemingly devoid of it, no? Even if you had to squeeze it out of places it didn't belong, like the universe was your exhausted orange. Or, hehe, like blood from a stone. Get it? No? Sorry.

Your favorite sculpure was the one in the mansion's garden. Well, okay, it wasn't your mansion, as you may have accidently implied in the previous sentence, but it was the mansion because it was the only one in the area, sitting among apartment buildings and parking lots.

It used to be a park, and a fairly popular one at that, famous for the giant fuckin' tree stump just… sitting in the middle. In your own honest opinion, you were pretty sure the city planners were trying to turn it into yet another parking lot, but most community efforts to get rid of the expansive stump had been pretty fruitless, so they begrudgingly turned it into a park instead, trying to use it as a selling point for tourists. "Come to our city! You can see the parking lots, apartment buildings and that one giant fucking tree stump!"

You were fairly sure that the city planners, then, breathed a collective sigh of relief about the whole matter when some rich asshole took it out of their hands by buying the whole property up, walling off the stump and the garden around it and making some bigass mansion for… bragging rights, maybe?? Either way, nobody came around to see the tree stump anymore, because he kept a pretty tight lock on it (though, sometimes if a tourist looked stupid enough he'd try to nickel and dime them into paying absurd prices to look at a stump).

Incidentally, tourism to the city also faced a sharp drop shortly after the stump was finished being walled off, putting the city in even worse debt. So, really, the city planners must be really kicking themselves now.

Anyway. Tourism and rich assholery aside, there was also a statue there. And that's what this story is about.

[dropthedemiurge]

Exactly, please separate the Technology and Business Product.

Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been worked on and used in many fields for decades already.

In short words, it's an algorithm that trains on certain data (it could be on your own, too, just lots of it) to try and predict or provide new outputs. It is used to search for problem solutions in science/engineering that would otherwise take days for people to look through. It is used in medicine to find new possible opportunities (idk I was a computer science, not a med researcher but I remember reading news about finding new cures with the help of ML/AI). The technology is good and it's a powerful tool for many tasks.

And yes, almost every enemy in thousands of games already has their sort of AI because it simply describes the behavior algorithm that computer uses to react to player's behavior or, well, make NPCs look human/act complex, etc. I think it's been used in 3D animation, too. Even way before the common folks started hearing about 'AI' from every corner.

When you do want to start burning people in a funky bonfire is when some businessmen combined with tech bros make some 'cool' scheme to effectively and easily earn quick money, not caring about people.

I remember a good advice being told as "When all your neighbours hear about this new trend, it is too late for you to invest in it", but in this case, it's about remembering that the technology probably already existed and was used years before and in many places that weren't so controversial but also that's why you didn't hear about it.

Same with blockchain (supporting technology that can enhance cyber security) and all the cryptos/NFTs (business product for messing with money and making owners rich)

So when the 'training data' is scraped from actual people, copyrighted and not, and promised to 'get rid of annoying workers and save you time with our passable content' or 'let's make you a cute anime avatar if you pay us 5 bucks' - that's the problem. The apps, the trendy products - this is what you should be upset about and not engage with. Boycott, even. Start that bonfire, glass your fanarts and junk the data so businessmen get annoyed and society will ridicule companies that produce art tools for using computer-generated illustrations.

But, guys. When companies talk about AI now, it could be about regulations, actually either making sure the customers know what they get, was this generated with problematic algorithms trained on stolen data, or was there consent given by people who participate in making a generator tool willingly. Maybe they even talk about being protected from the generated content or being able to detect it. The AI needs to get legal regulations, it now needs to be discussed in order for the technology usage to become better and nicer and safer. But you have to listen carefully first.

You shouldn't jump on people who talk about AI or work with AI tools only because the technology is now (as often happens) mostly associated with awful controversial trendy products. Some poor people are getting smashed when they spent years trying to making NPCs in their game fun to play, or assisting doctors in quickly recognizing cancer on MRI scans, because you won't give them time to explain what 'AI' means for them.

Some of y'all will see the word "AI" and freak out without actually processing anything that's being said like a conservative reading the word "pronouns"