#there is no intelligence! no intent! it's an algorithm!!

[multi-lefaiye]

my spicy hot take regarding AI chatbots lying to people is that, no, the chatbot isn't lying. chatgpt is not lying. it's not capable of making the conscious decision to lie to you. that doesn't mean it's providing factual information, though, because that's not what it's meant to do (despite how it's being marketed and portrayed). chatgpt is a language learning model simply predicting what responses are most probable based on established parameters.

it's not lying, it's providing the most statistically likely output based on its training data. and that includes making shit up.

[lorelune]

(aventurine x reader /// continuation of this concept)

"explain to me," the good doctor demands, "why do you need my help?"

"because." you fumble around you're words. your lips feel cold. herta's space station, especially this deep in it's bowels, is an unpleasant place to have any conversation, let alone one that is also unpleasant. "i don't have time."

"and you assume i do?"

"partially?" you rub a hand over your cheek. "throw me a bone here, doctor."

ratio has been sizing you up for the better part of half an hour, scrutinizing your intent in any way he can. you have been skillfully attempting to dodge most of those attempts, but veritas ratio is as diligent a man as he is intelligent. which is to say that he is not letting up until you divulge the truth.

you sigh.

"you will explain to me," he says outright, gaze piercing. "how one of the intelligentsia guild's most esteemed researchers needs help with an algorithm that is far below both of our skill levels. it's insulting to both myself, and yourself."

you sigh again, deeper and harder, "i, once again, do not have time. i have the 'full time job' of handling aventurine's odds, and those calculations don't run like any other odds i've ever worked with, and he is a variable constantly in motion. i need help making this algorithm so i can have some assistance with my main job at hand."

the doctor scoffs, and walks a circle around you, "i'm sure he's just thrilled with the company."

"we— he manages."

more than. but, veritas doesn't need to know that. you're sure he'll figure it out eventually.

veritas tagged the briefcase on a nearby table. it's gleaming, with a discreet ipc logo embossed on the side. the sight of it makes you nauseous with anxiety.

"is this bribe from him?" he asks.

"no." you've stopped aventurine anytime he has tried to intervene and make things easier for you. he rarely listens, but your relationship with ratio and the guild make him somewhat neutral territory. "higher up."

"i assume diamond wouldn't bother to dirty her hands. so, jade?"

"yes."

dr. ratio, for the first time, seriously considers your offer. then scowls. "it would be a waste of my time."

you sigh. there was a 67.22% chance of this outcome. luckily, you have gamed out the conversation from here.

"so you can't?"

"you know i can."

then, you laugh, and shake your head. "yes, i do. sorry to tease. i'm quite tired."

"you should go find your gambler." veritas crosses his arms, looking sidelong at the briefcase.

"i will, eventually." you turn your back to veritas as you begin to leave the open atrium. the air is hollow and frigid. "i'll just ask some other intelligentsia guild members about the project first. i'm sure they'd be happy to help."

you only take a few steps before dr. ratio grabs your arm. his grip is far too strong.

(chance of failure to secure dr. veritas ratio's assistance: decreased by 31%.)

"don't bother them."

"someone needs to help." you turn back to look at him, expression schooled. "and if you won't, i'm very sure someone else will be happy to work beside 'one of the intelligentsia guild's most esteemed researchers'. or, does such a title not truly apply considering i've been ousted from my previous position?"

he frowns, but before he can speak, you interrupt him. you haven't seen veritas since being tied down to your current post. you haven't let him have it. he deserves it, maybe.

"i heard from jade that i received a glowing recommendation from another well-respected scholar. apparently, the position was being considered for either one of us. somehow, with that recommendation, i drew the short end of the stick and now play handler for a man with a death wish and a statistically measurable chaos quotient that's ever-changing in multiples of three."

veritas's face is unmoving. unchanging. but you know you've struck something. it was to be him or you in this position. and you don't have the pride he does. you place your hand over top of his, posed to speak, to tear him apart—

a shrill ringtone shatters the tension. it's yours. you already know who it is.

you flip your phone open with one hand, still staring at ratio.

"hello," aventurine's voice beckons from the other side, smug and smooth. "where is my favorite, most brilliant mind hiding out? we're due to leave soon."

"sadly, with another one of your favorite, brilliant minds. i'll be finished up shortly and meet you at the docks."

"aw, did he not get onboard? that's quite the choice for him to be making. do you want me to give him a talking to you?"

"no, it's fine. i'm working something out."

"you sound upset."

"i'm tired." you rub at your eyes and break away from veritas with a yawn.

"you can nap on the ship. we have quite the journey."

"that we do. i'll see you in a bit?"

"see you there." you can hear the smirk in his voice.

sending you down to veritas alone was aventurine's gamble. one that is working out, predictably. never mind the damage your reputation will take after these next moments. you close the phone with a sigh and begin toward the grand elevator.

"veritas," you call his name. "i forgive you, for what it's worth. try not to do it again."

"i couldn't."

you laugh and shake your head as you ascend. by the time you arrive at the docks, the ipc's premier vessel is packed away and priming its engines. lights and sirens echo from it. aventurine's idles outside, waiting for you. he beams when he sees you.

"so," he whistles, guiding you with a hand on your lower back. you let him. "was the good doctor as prickly as ever?”

"if not more so" you admit. aventurine gestures with a sweeping hand to your shared quarters for the time being. there's a single bed, but you're used to this. you've come not to mind it. "i think i bruised his ego."

with a genuine laugh, “i don’t think that's possible."

"want to bet on that?" you ask.

your phone's text tone chimes and you shoot aventurine a sharp smile.

aventurine's odds are ridiculous. ever changing, constantly moving. none of your perceptions and calculations that are usually steadfast and unmoving can keep up with him. not with efficiency, anyways. it's exhausting work. however, the likelihoods of everything but aventurine? the predictions of a man like ratio?

easy. simple. you could do them in your sleep.

aventurine squishes against your side as you open your newest message.

[SENDER: Doctor Ratio <intelligentsia guild>]

> here is a first draft. forgo payment. i do not need to be in the stonehearts’ pocket.

[file attached: STONE ALGORITHM DRAFT 1.0.spqxxxiun.pqo]

aventurine laughs, muffling it against the side of your neck. his teeth are sharp and his breath is warm. it settles something in you. you lean into him and deflate, sliding down into your lap so your head is pillows there. a gloved hand cards through your hair.

"you're quite good at the game, when you choose to play." aventurine reminds you. he tells you this often.

"i know." you turn your face into his hand as the ship rumbles. "but it's your job."

aventurine pauses his pets, then thumbs over your lips. he looks sour, only for a moment, before resuming his motions, a bit rougher this time. you relish the feel of it, sinking into it.

"one of us has to, right?"

"right."

"and the other," he taps your lips. your sputter, indignant. "plays support."

"one of us has to." you remind him.

it's silent between the two of you as the ship whirs and bellows, taking off from herta's space station without reverie. onto your next destination, wherever aventurine is deigned to be needed, with you by his side, dutifully.

you press your face into his stomach, letting the smell of linen and his cologne envelope you.

neither of you have a choice to play this game. the cards are stacked, and you best not loose count from aventurine's side. you'll be damned if you do.

(there is a 98.769% chance that you are damned regardless.)

at least, at least, you have each other, you think as aventurine bundles you up closer, and you wrap yourself around him. you'll take that, for as long as it lasts.

[literallymechanical]

universe.lsp

Hello!  How was your trip?  I see that this is your first instantiation into real-space. It’s normal to be a bit disoriented, have some water.  You understand why you’re here? Okay.

So, the big thing you need to know is that every cubic light year of א-space – what you call “the universe” – runs on between five and fifty times that volume of computronium. Empty-ish א-space uses the least, star systems need more, black holes use less than you’d expect once you’re inside the event horizon.

Hm? Yes, this is computronium, computationally-dense matter.  No, no, it’s not a visual metaphor, you’re seeing it for real. With your eyes. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah, It’s mostly copper and gallium arsenide and graphene. Yeah, like the new Intel processors. We have some hacks to deal with relativity and thermal management, but other than that– I mean, no, you're not wrong, there are probably better architectures. Yeah.

Ah, okay, I understand why you'd say that, but no, your universe is not a simulation. It’s a virtuality, it’s different. Calm down. “Simulation” implies intention, that somebody – some intelligence – built it on purpose. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah, no, up here, our laws of physics led to the natural emergence of an infinite expanse of transistors that execute an unfathomably complex rendering algorithm to describe א-space and everything in it.  Wild, right?  Let’s hope it doesn’t crash!  Ha ha!

Anyway, welcome to the IT department.  We’re keeping you close to home – good eye, that’s Sirius. We get pizza with the Sol crew on Thursdays.  I’ll let you get settled in, your training starts tomorrow at 8:30 sharp.  Holler if you need anything!

[bambiesfics]

Hi, this is just to spring off of another TLOU blog’s post, which I thought was aptly worded: Please find that post here! and please find the original twitter thread on Pro-Palestinian resources here!

I just wanted touch on how inappropriate it is to use a genocide as an excuse to morally posture over other people in our community because you’re itching to play an own ego-stroking game of ‘whose a better activist than who.’

Outside of the strikes, and days dedicated to raising awareness coming here to say asinine, innapropriate comments such as “Y’all can’t stop posting about pixel pussy?!” Is extremely unhelpful and is just something that sows undue resentment in our community. When you do things like that, we know what you’re really saying, and it’s not nice. What you’re really saying is “You guys are shitty people for still having any remaining vested interested in this community, unlike me, someone whose an enlightened online activist. I’m above caring about that childish little 2D lesbian and the sapphic community it brought forth, despite the fact that my initial interest in her is why I was ever even apart of this community I’m mocking to begin with. I’ll pretend my corrosive virtual-signalling insults and jabs are coming from a ‘good place,’ and aren’t rooted in being self-serving at all! I’ll pretend that I’m not using this genocide as a vehicle to stroke my own ego for rising above ‘petty, immature things’ like sapphic media, sexuality and community. I’m highkey so much better than you all, I’ll just refuse to admit that outright. Instead I’ll continue to subtly mock your intelligence and distract away from helpful posts about this genocide, and hope you won’t see what I’m doing for what it is. My favourite activity during genocide is not to educate people and commit myself to Palestinian liberation, but rather throw stones, hide my hands and demean well-intentioned posts just because it makes me feel good. Realistically, not one person in Gaza was tangibly helped by the insults I left in the TLOU tags for people to see, but I won’t stop because I’m just a girl….obviously.”

Hey, listen: I’ve been to protests where the organizers, MY PEERS, were other university students who were 18-22, who have had the diligence to remind everyone in the crowd to NOT ENGAGE WITH ZIONISTS. Why? Because it wasn’t safe, because their goal was to inspire a conflict in what is intended to be a united camaraderie in support of PALESTINE 🇵🇸. If those young adults can keep steadfast to their goal of mobilizing for Palestine, then I believe these bad faith actors on TLOU tumblr should learn not to sow shame in people for simply posting a drabble (when not striking) in a community whose fiction they lavished the fruits of, not too long ago. Why? Because it’s not helpful. Because instead of posting helpful resources to aid Palestinians and educating your followers on the zionist Neil Druckman, and to remain mindful of the Zionist themes in the game, you’re using that voice, the tlou tags and it’s reach, just to demean people. It’s such a wasted opportunity to speak up. Hey, if you’re going to say anything in regards to Palestine, then say something helpful to them! That’s an easy enough ask. The yellow jacket community on twitter figured out what pro-revolutionary activism looked like as a community, and I’m proud of them.

I’ll put this in the Ellie x reader tags because I know people who say things like that, either tend to frequent the tags or the tumblr algorithm will push it because of their interests.

[vaspider]

re the ai art thing: there are absolutely some shitty things going on with ai art at the moment, but i feel like this whole thing would benefit from more clarity on the bad actors involved so that arguments could be meaningfully directed at them instead of the nebulous concept of "ai art". i suspect elon musk's name is being used as a buzzword here - while he was one of many founders of openai, he resigned from the company before things like gpt and dall-e even came into existence, so i find posts that talk as though he's still actively involved to be suspect. second, it's entirely possible for an ai art generator to create something thats no more derivative of existing work than a human using it as inspiration. i agree it's still not 100% ethically pure, but at that point it sort of becomes a philosophical debate, not a practical one. a lot of ai art bots DO use significant parts of work, though, and the medical photo story would be horrifying even if ai art wasn't involved - these are specific bad actors, specific people who put private photos into the public domain, specific people who don't do the due diligence in making sure their model doesn't violate the copyright and forgery boundaries we already have in place, specific users who choose to generate derivative art for unethical purposes, and aiming this very justified anger at them is likely to bring about a lot more positive change.

No, Elon Musk's name is being used because he has a very long and very loud history of thinking he shouldn't need to credit artists or writers and that he should be able to use anything in any way he wants and people should be grateful that he did. That context is very important when talking about the intention behind the Tech Bro Collage Machine.

Second, no. It is not possible for an AI to create anything that isn't 100% derivative. There are a few reasons for this:

"AI," that is, actual artificial intelligence, does not exist. This is not nitpicking terminology, this is extremely important and crucial. What we are talking about isn't a brain. It doesn't think. It doesn't create. It cannot create. We may wish to think that it can create - humans love to wonder and we love to anthropomorphize everything, but no. Calling it "AI" is a branding decision, and propaganda. It isn't fact. AI doesn't create anything, first of all, because AI doesn't exist.

Tech-Bros Discover Collages™️ is a program. An algorithm. It does not create any more than a paint mixer creates purple paint when the Home Depot worker puts red and blue paint into a can and loads it into the paint mixer. All it can do it take what it is given and smash it together over and over and over again. And that is - in a very simplistic but also very real way - all that TBDCs do.

I'm very sorry, but androids do not yet dream of electric sheep, computers don't think, and comparing the pixel output of a machine that's just as likely to barf put a man with three fingers growing out of his cheek as it is a "masterpiece" that, if you unfocus your eyes and ignore the watermark artifacts and look past the weird smeary edges and all of the other tells, almost looks kinda like it's not AI art to the output of an actual working artist is absolutely facile. I genuinely cannot believe that people are actually making this argument. Like, I really can't. No, the computer isn't thinking and it can't actually create anything. You're playing with an extremely complicated kaleidoscope loaded with millions of dollars worth of stolen art, intended to help billionaires further defraud everyone else by replacing artists with digital garbage. That's it. That's all. It is nothing more. It cannot be anything more.

I really do wonder what people think is going to happen, here. Do y'all really think this is going to do anything but make it impossible for small artists to make money?

People are already selling "prompts lists" on Etsy as if that is original art, which it is not. People who have gotten really good at playing with the kaleidoscope have gone on long huffy rants about how they shouldn't have to reveal their prompts because they put work into coming up with that specific prompts list... all written without a shred of self-awareness or realization of irony.

I genuinely don't want the answer, here, because as a working artist, I am really exhausted of people trying to defend the destruction of the livelihood I've poured myself into, and the destruction of my friends' livelihoods, too, but I want you to ask yourself (quietly, in your head, and if you want to post about it, do it on your blog, don't put it here) what you think the end result of all of this is going to be.

Do you think this is going to result in some grand new wave of art democratization? It will not. Do you think computers can really create? They cannot. Or do you think instead this is going to lead to a lot of artists no longer being able to find sufficient work as the Fiverr/Uber/Amazonification of everything combined with AI art means that a lot of the meat-and-potatoes commissions and art jobs dry up, because why would you pay someone $100 to draw you a really original picture of your OC with their hours of labor and years of experience when you can get Midjourney to make you one in minutes ✨️for free✨️?

While y'all are busy talking about how computers are doing something not at all different from the human mind (lol), you're hammering the livelihood of a lot of people into the ground, duped by the same people currently burning Twitter to the ground, lighting piles of money on fire as crypto, and minting NFTs. This is just the next thing in a long line of tech bro scams.

Stop falling for it. You're fucking shit up and I'm tired.

[seniorpollinationtechnician]

Meet the Townies: ᴏʀɪᴏɴ

Orion, otherwise known as the Operations for Research, Intelligence, and Optimization Network, was composed of a specialized group of Sixonians tasked to study and understand other planets and lifeforms. Their primary mission was to gather intelligence, conduct biological research, and develop new technologies to enhance the capabilities and knowledge of their race. The team consisted of (from left to right) Jorlan Vex, Lieutenant Zerath Veylor, Doctor Velana Krynn, and Zyri Solith. Before being offered a position on the ORION team, Jorlan attended the prestigious Korthis Institute of Technology, where he specialized in advanced systems engineering and quantum mechanics. After graduating with honors, Jorlan was employed by the Orbitex Industries, where he worked on developing cutting-edge technology for space travel. He led multiple successful projects that secured him a spot within ORION. As the team's systems engineer, Jorlan was responsible for maintaining and enhancing the team's technological equipment. Following his graduation from the Kharis Military Academy, Zerath was a member of the SPECTREs (Special Planetary Exploration and Combat Tactical Response Experts) where he served with distinction for several decades. He participated in numerous high-risk missions. During one such mission, Zerath sustained a severe injury to his lower limbs. The injury left him with limited mobility, forcing him into early retirement from active military service. While adjusting to his new life away from the battlefield, Zerath received an unexpected offer from in search of security officer. Despite his injury, Zerath immediately jumped at the chance. As the security officer, his primary responsibility was to ensure the safety of the team during their missions, handling any security threats and leading defensive operations if necessary. Velana attended the Valtara Academy of Sciences, where she majored in xenobiology. Her exceptional performance and passion for extraterrestrial life earned her a scholarship to the Sixonian Institute of Extraterrestrial Research (SIER), the leading institution for space biology and alien ecology studies. At SIER, she conducted research on extremophiles and their potential to survive on other planets. Her doctoral thesis on the adaptability of alien microbial life forms received widespread acclaim and set the stage for her future career. The Sixonian Institute of Extraterrestrial Research, recognizing the growing need for a dedicated team to explore and study new planets and alien life forms, greenlit the creation of ORION with the intent to combine the best minds in various scientific and technological fields to conduct in-depth research and ensure Sixam's continued dominance of exploration. Dr. Velana Krynn was selected as the team's xenobiologist due to her unparalleled expertise and proven track record in alien biology. Her role in ORION involved studying the physiology, behavior, and ecosystems of extraterrestrial species. Zyri was an employee at the Sixonian Intergalactic Communication Bureau where she specialized in xenolinguistics, semiotics, and interspecies communication. Her groundbreaking research on deciphering alien languages and developing universal translation algorithms garnered the attention of the Sixonian Institute of Extraterrestrial Research, earning her a place on the team. As the team's Communication and Linguistics Specialist, Zyri is responsible for establishing and maintaining communication with alien species. Her tasks included decoding and interpreting alien languages, developing translation protocols, and ensuring clear and effective communication during missions. The team, once celebrated for their discoveries and technological advancements, are now largely seen as the catalyst for Sixam's downfall.

[rawmeknockout]

so i was considering this idea last night before bed: a decepticon lab tech makes a program of a companion AI (the reader), it's not official business and Shockwave doesn't understand it but the lab tech tries to rationalize it as creating a real living mech from a drone. the Decepticons aren't just in sore need of canon fodder but also problem-solving, strategic minds as their generals and commanders grow older and are lost to the war. Shockwave isn't all that impressed, because he can see through the intentions of the lab tech, but he lets it go because it's not like this project is taking up considerable resources and if it can yield actual results then he can just commandeer it.

eventually the lab tech tragically dies in battle, it's been months since you've been turned on. Shockwave isn't the sentimental type, he actually forgot you existed, but when he stumbles upon your equipment in the lab... he can't being himself to throw it out. after all it's a sin to waste precious materials.

he onlines your programming and tries to input actual data that would make you a suitable replacement for a battle computer, with real thinking and intelligence instead of mere algorithms and probabilities, but your first function is of course as a pleasant companion for a lonely lab tech.......

[1hoverman0k]

saying ai will eventually be considered a genuine intelligence that is owed respect is like the (i think fake) story of the people in 1896 who got scared when they watched a movie of a train coming towards the camera bc they didnt understand what was happening and thought they would get run over. llm's and animal brains are wholly different things with different mechanisms. there are similarities and it really looks convincing when you only present a llm in a way that shows those similarities and hides its fundamental differences. the fact that they can even be hidden is pretty freaky and very interesting. one big difference from my understanding of llms is the fact that an llm has what's called a window of attention, and if you make it yap for a long time it becomes completely incapable of remembering what it started talking about. you can even remind it what it was, and it can pretend to know, but will never be able to prove that it does. we don't know a lot about how memories are formed and stored in the human brain, but it's been shown that memories aren't ever entirely deleted, and instead when you forget something it's more apt to attribute that to the neuron sequence that leads to the memory not having been exercised enough. so is an llm's amnesia a digital storage problem? no, attention size increases correlate with training time (or training 'amount' since it's all parallelized) as the algorithm is rewarded for accidentally remembering longer until it becomes intentional (though 'intention' is also a nonexistent thing in llm's). movies will never get 'advanced' enough to hit you with a train. but there Are those 4d movies with the moving chairs and water sprays n shit that can make you almost feel like you almost got hit by a train.

[eversoslightlyburnttoast]

What’s your favourite scene from each AOAS book and why?

OKAY THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR ALL 4 BOOKS BECAUSE 😩😩😩😩

Also im new to tumblr so please forgive me if i use these special functions wrong 💀

And im sorry if i mix up scenes and books, i read them all back to back and my memory/recall is already poor so be patient and please correct me if im wrong

Sycthe:

1) Finding out the faraday "self gleaned" and then Citra then finding out the truth to then meeting him- i almost cried because faraday is one of my favorite characters and just citras persistence was amazing

2) Rowan. God his whole existence, between faraday, Goddard and volta- i love how his character is writen

Thunderhead:

1) I loved being able to hear more from the thunderhead itself, despite being an algorithm it has so so so much personality, the best true neutral out there

2) THE INTRODUCTION OF GREYSON- AND FUCKING SLAYD??? God i honestly wished he did get with purity and im also upset they didnt bring her up more (im surprised theres not really any fanart of her, she looks badass)

The Toll:

1) the whole book.

2)SCYTHE FARADAY AND HIS LIBRARIAN BOY I LOVE THEM DJSNVJSJD

3) The whole sinking of endura, the whole thing was worded so beautifully and it wad worded in such a way I could feel the despair and dread emitting from the pages

4) the ending. Im talking the very last page. I fucking wish we got more of what happened after citra got revived, was she confused as to why rowan felt older? What was she feeling??? How did she react???

Gleanings (not yet done with the book):

1) Scythe Fields and his dog with the intent to murder, i find it hilarious that a scythe can be bested by an intelligent dog 😭

2) Scythe Goddards back story, its so weird to humanize him but thats just what makes villians even better imo

[tumblingxelian]

Underrated Writing: .Hack's Morganna Mode Gone

There's a villain I don't think gets enough credit, Morgana Mode Gone from .Hack//Sign, Liminality and the four part game series, plus the AI Buster novels.

Brief summary:

Hack is set on a slightly altered history Earth, where in part due to plot & also the era it was conceived it blends the Sci-Fu futurism and "The internet is magic" together with the "Isekai" and "Trapped in a game" story concepts. Different eras of the series have different tones & structures, but this is covering the early eras overarching Villain.

Morganna Mode Gone is the "God" of a game simply called "The World", which was based on the writings of the epic poem Epitaph of Twilight.

But in truth she is more akin to a Gnostic deity, false or proto god. Because her primary purpose is actually to tend to and facilitate the birth of the worlds Ultimate AI, Aura.

I mean actual AI, as in, artificial intelligence, not some shitty algorithm tech bro idiots slapped a trench coat on.

Morganna Mode Gone is herself an artificial intelligence, one capable of contradicting herself, ah sapience, but is still bound by the rules of her programming.

This is a problem for her because once Aura is born/awake, Morganna Mode Gone won't have a purpose and she can't really conceive of what happens then.

As a result, before the series even began she essentially fragmented off a portion of her own identity, forming the Vagrant AI Macha, but she couldn't solve the problem.

Because if Aura dies, then Morganna Mode Gone also has no purpose. She needs a way to Ouroboros this situation, leaving Aura always growing but never developing, never waking.

She also trapped her and Aura's creator in The World when he realized what was happening. He survives the series but never escapes, and eventually devolves/evolves into a sort of living relic.

It was around this period that she began breaking & twisting things to try & escape the paradox she was trapped in. Re-styling herself from Harold's idea of a mother into the Cursed Wave.

This included orchestrating the hunting down and deletion, IE murder of other Vagrant AI's that were forming as a result of the Black Box meant to birth Aura, IE, proto Aura's, like Lycoris.

"I am an unwanted child. Even God doesn't want me." — Lycoris —

As well as using Macha or Guardians to 'Data Drain' any humans who get to close, which at its lightest, leaves them temporarily comatose, destroys their characters and has a negative impact on their mind.

You might notice Moraganna Mode Gone has not yet been established as making an appearance, good eye.

See, one of the things that makes her so interesting to me is that Moraganna Mode Gone is nominally omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent figure.

She is the underlying system of The World itself and for all intents and purposes a force of nature. As a result she primarily acts through intermediaries, or by guiding others to act for purposes.

Managing to make a villain like this work, and work so effectively is one of the biggest strengths. As it is, we pure Moraganna Mode Gone as a disembodies voice that influences the world & creatures.

She also has some fantastic lines, though not quite as effective without the atmosphere and delivery, I still love them, such as:

"The higher up it is dropped, the worse the crash will be. Hope is the best spice to bring out despair." — Morganna Mode Gone —

In order to accomplish her goal, Moraganna Mode Gone has Macha manipulate and Data Drain Tsukasa. A human who she had been watching and trying to replicate for some time, but without getting what she needed for her goal.

This also involved warping Tsukasa's memories, leaving only those of her abusive father, and creating a divide between her real world identity of Shoji and online identity Tsukasa, to further weaken his ties to the real world. Tsukasa's gender is rather liquid, as far as I can tell and either way, also a lesbian.

"The World and all of its wonders; this is my world, you see."— Tsukasa —

The reason for this was to essentially tie Tsukasa's desire to stay within The World to Aura's development. So long as Tsukasa never wanted to leave, Aura would never want to wake up.

However, other determined players, isolation, and a disconnect from physical sensation leading to alienation led to Tsukasa gaining connections and desires outside of simply staying in The World.

This, Morganna Mode Gone began... Moving chess pieces so to speak. Orchestrating traumatic incidents. Giving Tsukasa a pet monsters for protection but that would also attack those she wanted gone. As Tsukasa continues to develop independence Aura's health improves, VS her sickened, pallid state when Tsukasa is locked in survival mode.

Things eventually come to ahead and well,

Morgnanna Mode Gone basically destroys Tsukasa's mind to ensure a perpetual state of despair and catatonia. Permanently stunting Aura's development.

Much of the rest of the series, is centered on the rest of the characters gaining the necessary knowledge to finally understand the situation.

As well as the Macha fragment of Morganna Mode Gone's ties to Tsukasa creating doubt and Subaru and Tsukasa's bond managing to slowly begin waking Tsukasa up.

Which naturally leads to Morganna Mode Gone needing to orchestrate more despair, but circumstances such as the bastion of Net Slum & her programming keep her from auto winning.

A great deal happens, including some mind fuckery and illussion conversations. Along with more classive abuser tactices like holding the threat of what awaits Tsukasa in theoutside over head.

But eventually Aura is awakened by Tsukasa's desire to return to the real world regardless of the hurled and the characters escape with Aura, thanks to the turncoat Sora.

Suffice to say this doesn't pan out well for him.

Morganna fragments more of herself and uses him as a sort of beacon & vessel to craft the first Phase of the Cursed Wave:

"Riding the Wave is Skeith, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands." — Epitaph of Twilight —

This is such an imposing threat that Helba, thematically the same Helba, Queen of the Dark from the Epitaph of Twilight, has to erase the entire world segment they are in just to keep Skeith away from them and put Aura beyond its reach for a time.

Skeith continues to be hosted inside Sora in an ensuing novel, with Sora flittering between amnesiac, malevolent brat and an utterly inhuman monster which violates the basic principles of the game.

But is eventually devoured by Skeith and continued hunting down Aura until the Phase is defeated in .Hack Infection. A memory of Sora leaves behind a reward for the one who did the deed.

Moraganna Mode Gone wasn't done however.

As all this was happening, she basically began fragmenting off parts of herself into other portions of the Cursed Wave:

Skeith:"The Terror of Death"

Innis:"The Mirage of Deceit"

Magus:"The Propagation"

Fidchell:"The Prophet"

Gorre: "The Machinator"

Macha:"The Temptress"

Tarvos:"The Avenger"

Corbenik:"The Rebirth"

Relying on the logic that Aura wasn't yet 'finished' or otherwise not not correct 7 so needed to be destroyed like any other Vagrant AI, so Morganna could start the process over again.

These phased also sent anyone they encountered into comas and even altered electrical installation and internet usage with their presence, while generally corrupting The World.

Fun fact, they all have the symbol of an eye on them representing Morganna Mode Gone's presence in them and her observing the world through them.

Skeith actually did manage to capture and fragment Aura, but not before she created the Bracelet of Twilight, and with it the Eldrich horror Cubia to combat the Cursed Wave.

Morganna Mode Gone would eventually fuse with the last of her Phases in a bid to directly end her foe that had slowly, over the course of four games, destroyed the other seven phases and Cubia.

Ultimately, Aura had to sacrifice herself to ensure Morganna Mode Gone would be destroyed, but in doing so, also allowed herself to be reborn .

Remnants of her continue to haunt and corrupt the world in the form of Data Bugs and an effort by the parent company to recreate her through the lingering fragments of the Eight Phases doesn't go quite to plan, let's say.

Conclusion:

But yeah, Morganna Mode Gone, No one is doing it like her, she has everything:

She is a force of nature and omnipresent goddess, to a Gnostic false god & a program breaking itself & everything around it in the quest for agency inside its own mind that struck down her creator.

She's a woman bound to and violently rejecting the sacrificial role of mother & seeking to destroy that which will supersede her & a manipulator and abuser, as well as philosopher and prisoner.

She is a corruptive influence on the world as well as the very foundation upon which the world world itself is built & she is the Cursed Wave, part of a story, a myth, a poem that is woven into The World itself.

What's more,

Her fragments in the Cursed Wave Phases are all a wonderful blend of eldrich, Biblical & elemental. Something only enhanced by the games Graphics of the time:

[unclekoopus]

Art theory states that art should have intention. A dissertation on "AI Art".

A disclaimer first of all that I am someone that has dived deep into AI image generation, I've worked with and created my own models and generated my own images using the open source code. I did this to understand what it is and how it works and I'd say I understand it more than most artists that talk about it online. I feel confident saying that I know what I'm talking about in this matter. I know its capabilities and limitations.

I'm not going to get into the morality of the use of it. I won't defend the rampant theft and copyright violations, I'm someone that believes that AI image gen at the very least should never be used for commercial purposes, but in this post I only want to talk about something else: Tte plain and simple merits of AI art as "Art" itself.

I'll start with repeating my premise statement: "Art theory states that art should have intention in order to be art." Does AI generation meet this criteria? Well, no, not really. Specifically it's not an image generation user's "art" if it is art at all.

With pattern biased algorithmic image generation, AKA "AI art”, someone pressing a button after typing in a prompt just doesn’t amount to a person actually picking and choosing their subject, their composition, and ESPECIALLY their meaning and message. The result is most definitely not the button-pusher's art, the generation is too random and what comes out belongs far more to the machine than to the prompter.

And a machine cannot by itself cogently make the essential choices to make an image successfully have intent. Language models we currently have cannot communicate a person's intent to the machine beyond a few broad strokes tags and trigger words, and pattern bias will often supercede those prompts anyway. A discerning eye will always be able to tell which decisions were made by a machine because it is not making them in the way a human being would, they appear uncanny in the most basic way. The generator is not understanding and interpreting the space and subject in the way that someone who lives and breathes with binocular vision and a human's infinitely more adaptable brain would.

The generator is incapable of truly understanding stylization or design principals, and all its continual, persistent mistakes in numbers of fingers, in anomalous anatomy, and broken gestalt, in nonsensical perspective, and merged and floating objects are a byproduct of this lack of living intelligence. These are things that will never go away, no matter how much data is fed into it because it is flawed at the core by the very basis of its pattern bias. It cannot "learn" how to fix them and so it can only hope to, at best, get lucky enough, or generate enough iterations of the same prompt that the images won't show the cracks. And that process is not creative, it's gambling at a slot machine hoping for a payout.

AI gen really is just a parlor trick at this moment in time, it’s a parrot that’s been taught to repeat phrases in response to certain stimuli to fool you into thinking you’re having a conversation, but it’s just really been trained to recognize noises, not meaning. It's a very pretty bird, but it's no replacement for the real thing, and the longer you "talk" with it, the more obvious that will become.

Art, the real art that the machine is trying and failing to learn from and replicate, requires a human’s creativity and problem solving to be able to make the decisions that will create a piece of art that someone can confidently call their own.

[darkmaga-retard]

Elon Musk comes clean on his original plans for Neuralink, going far beyond medical needs. Now, he reveals that his implant will offer “super-human” abilities to millions with no medical condition. Is anyone surprised? Musk the Transhuman is definitely staking his claim in Klaus Schwab’s 4th Industrial Revolution world of human enhancements. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Technocracy New Editor

Elon Musk hopes to implant millions of Neuralink chips into people’s brains over the next decade, the tech billionaire has said.

The Neuralink chief executive announced his plans following an update from the neurotech startup that revealed new capabilities of its brain-computer interface.

According to the firm, the second patient to be fitted with the device was able to use it to play first-person shooter games and design three-dimensional objects.

If all goes well, there will be hundreds of people with Neuralinks within a few years, maybe tens of thousands within five years, millions within 10 years,” Mr Musk wrote on X in response to Neuralink’s blog post.

Neuralink said that the latest participant in its first ever human study of the technology was able to perform new tasks using their thoughts, such as designing 3D objects using computer-aided design (CAD) software.

The participant was able to design and print a custom mount for his Neuralink charger using the brain-computer interface, a process that was impossible with the assistive technologies he had previously used.

He was also able to play a first-person video game that typically requires two separate joysticks to control the character.

“Just running around is enjoyable because I can look side to side,” he said. “I can [think about where to] look and it goes where I want it to. It’s insane.”

The Prime study has focussed on people with quadriplegia, though Mr Musk claims the technology will one day allow humans to merge with artificial intelligence in order to augment brain and body performance.

Potential applications include streaming music directly to the brain and improving eyesight to view new parts of the light spectrum, according to Mr Musk, however some neuroscientists claim such capabilities are decades away and come with risks of hacking and cyber attacks.

Neuralink said it now plans to add improved functionality to the brain implants used in the human trials, developing new algorithms that can recognise handwriting intent in order to enable faster text entry.

“These capabilities would not only help restore digital autonomy for those who are unable to use their limbs, but also restore the ability to communicate for those who are unable to speak, such as people with neurological conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),” Neuralink’s latest progress update concluded.

“Additionally, we plan to enable the Link to interact with the physical world, allowing users to feed themselves and move more independently by controlling a robotic arm or their wheelchair.”

Read full story here…

[legok9]

>When referencing art...

>Humans use them as inspiration

>shows artwork make by a human

>A.I. uses them as samples

>shows a photoshopped image ALSO MADE BY A HUMAN

There are so many GOOD arguments against AI art (namely artists losing corporate jobs to AI), but AI art detractors shoot themselves in the foot with laughable arguments like this.

If AI art was this bad, why should people mad about it? Are they afraid to show what real AI art looks like?

This is what Craiyon gives me for "Mona Lisa in front of Starry Night" (I made the prompt simpler because it's a quick and free AI.):

These two are fairly remarkable. Keep in mind that Craiyon is a basic AI and it intentionally blurs faces to avoid ethical concerns:

I've never tried advanced AI like Midjouney or Dall-E, but the output I've seen from them is stunning. AI is equally transformative (at least in a literal sense) to existing art as any human being. Human beings are learning algorithms made of meat. We are Meat Intelligences.

AI only lacks true intelligence to make intentional creative choices that humans can make.

And yes, AI art is indeed deeply, deeply concerning for the future employment of artists.

Don't worry, there will always be a demand for artwork "made a real human being!", but concept artists could be made obsolete almost immediately. AI is more than good enough for concept art.

The 21st century is when everything changed.

Copyright is broken in the digital era:

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on ChatGPT and AI?

I saw something in a tweet (or perhaps on cohost) about the growing sentiment that things like ChatGPT have already attained sentience and people think they are speaking to a consciousness because it accurately simulates human speech. Just last night, a friend of mine was pasting ChatGPT logs where people were having it generate... reviews? pitches? For fake movies that did not exist.

They weren't good, but they were amusing, and seemed to be written intelligently. Not well, mind you. As far as comedy material goes, they were fairly bland, C-grade stuff. But they read as if a boring, average human had written them.

I tried to generate one of my own, and ChatGPT protested, because it considered a fake movie to be "misinformation" and it told me it did not want to be used to generate or spread lies. It was an expression of intent.

And I think back to the Google employee that was fired last year after becoming convinced that Google's internal chat bot, used to interface with their "algorithm", had achieved sentience because he was able to ask it philosophical questions. He said it demonstrated self-awareness, because the answers it provided were written as if a human person was expressing wants and desires.

And here's the deal: I've written chat bots myself. I like to boast about the fact I've written a chat bot that employs markov chains years before I knew what a markov chain was. I stumbled upon the concept completely organically, on my own terms. It makes me feel pretty smart!

The point is, I've built these things before, because the underlying concept just makes sense. Now, ChatGPT is dramatically more complex than the one I built, but the core idea is still the same. It's just their sentence assembly algorithm is a lot better than mine was.

And we as a species will put googly eyes on our roombas and give it pet names and take care of it like it is part of the family. We will see personality in places where there is just cold, unfeeling pattern recognition. Nothing can be random, everything is being controlled by the forces of the universe, and this must be some manifestation and exhibition of "the soul." Right?

That puts us in the realm of like, scrying, or bone-reading, or divination.

For a chat bot.

That's hubris. These machines are not capable of making human decisions. They are something you insert numbers in to, it calculates those numbers, and tells you the result. It's easy to be metaphorical about a description like that, but there is nothing creationary happening here.

When a person creates a piece of artwork, it is because they have the overwhelming desire to express an emotion that is dominating their thoughts. That art -- whether it's a painting, a novel, a song, or whatever -- is a lightning rod to channel their feelings. That is why particularly powerful art makes us feel things when we experience it, because it is human emotion in its rawest form.

When a robot creates a piece of artwork, it is because it has been asked to. Because it has been fed a "prompt." The robot has no overwhelming desires. It only exists because a human asked it to exist.

And what the robot generates isn't a collection of influences from things it picked out for itself because it formed an emotional connection with the source material. It's generated from information it was spoon-fed by someone else. The only reason it is able to generate beauty is because somebody else made an emotional connection and told the robot to copy its homework.

It isn't arrested by anxiety it cannot control, or understands what lovesickness is. It does not feel fear or curiosity. It only thinks when it is told to think, and it can only tell you things other people have already thought.

This is why things like Midjourney sample so many millions of images -- because that allows it to more easily hide just how much of it is simply recycled from existing content, and that obscurity theft sells the lie of creativity where there is none.

Then I think about people who joined the new Bing Search Beta, where instead of searching webpages, you talk to one of these chat bots. And the growing number of people who claim they're making the bot have a "mental breakdown." And how, in order for that to be true, somebody needed to write specific code for this to happen.

But then why would somebody do such a thing? What goal is being attained by making you believe the bot can feel things it clearly cannot? What agenda is this a part of?

Stay human out there, folks.

[sanctiphera]

He couldn't cope with a modern Western society that treats women and minorities like people. So he moved to a more corrupt society, run by hardmen, where it's okay to treat some people as less than others.

Then, he acts shocked and horrified when it turns out, the hardmen will treat him really badly — maybe even worse than is justified by his creepy rapey behaviour — to curry favour with more developed countries.

He is shocked.

But the algorithm promotes Andrew Tate for a reason.

Everything he says and does looks tailor-made to fit in with the strategy of tension. What he does and says is quite ridiculous, but the themes that he will touch on are very much in line with what we find out of Anglo-American intelligence.

Romanticizing Islam, for example, has been a long-term project of British intelligence going back to Lawrence of Arabia.

And what's Andrew Tate been doing lately?

He's been promoting Islam as the antidote to wokeness. His cartoonish take on manliness will ironically keep dysfunctional men in a perpetual state of adolescence that's very much intentional.

The Tavistock Institute (and other Western academic institutions connected to intelligence) have been studying methods to reduce the population through social engineering.

What better way to reduce the population than by telling frustrated young men to become materialistic frat boys forever?

Yes, he says he wants men to have lots of kids. However, he is promoting an interpretation of masculinity that is so cartoonish that, if taken seriously, not very many guys out there would be successful in finding a woman, much less having kids.

Almost nothing he says is meant to be taken seriously, or at least not literally. He literally said that dopamine is the worst thing ever for you because his bro science brain told him to say that shit. By that logic, he must believe that Parkinson's disease (characterized by a loss of ability to produce dopamine) is wonderful.

But his outrageous antics are the point. They grab your attention, and you either think he's wonderful or you think he's a horrid character.

Most people don't understand that he's a useful character to manipulate the population into embracing despotic technocratic governance (he really animates the folks who love censorship).

[forcedhesitation]

not the usual rant...

but I haven't been on twitter in a while, and all for the better really, I'm starting to accept. people will preach endlessly about how you can "curate" your experience, but I just do not think that is possible of twitter.

the practice of quote retweeting bigots/bigoted bait posts is way too common, even amongst people who genuinely have something intelligent to say in response and do not care for the engagement the qrt might bring them. I swear, it doesn't matter how many people I mute, block, or unfollow...there's always someone who's qrting some scummy shithead's terrible opinion. I really don't need to see you qrting a transphobe to know you do not stand with them... likewise, I think I can safely say that most people belonging to a marginalised and/or minority group would much rather you ignored those bigots' accounts entirely, and spent your time...oh idk...educating yourself, or directly supporting us and other peoples facing oppression.

then there's all the ignorant, and often wilful, misinterpreting of people's words...the complete lack of understanding some people have that, no, someone cannot fit an entire dissertation's worth of nuance into 200 or so characters of commentary. that, or someone will see a tweet of a partially expressed opinion and a (1/5) tacked on the end, and still only respond to that first tweet in the thread, completely ignoring the rest of the person's commentary because they were overcome with immeasurable lust at the mere opportunity to "dunk" on someone. not to get too personal, but I have a problem with understanding how sincere people are, and thus always feel as though I must make my own thoughts and intentions as clear as possible. and I feel as though being on twitter genuinely makes that problem worse for me. it's hard to tell if people are saying what they are because they care, because they want engagement, or because they are plainly an asshole.

and of course, seeing awful fandom related crap is also unavoidable because twitter has a terrible tagging system. the worst out of all the major social media sites, I'd argue. the algorithm hides posts with too many tags, so it's not necessarily possible for you to mute something upsetting or irritating, and avoid seeing those things. not that people would tag some of the things they post, anyway, because while a system to warn people of mature content exists, most users do not actually use that feature. this is a problem that obviously extends beyond just fandom, and that is where the real issue lies. regularly you will encounter videos of real life carnage, pornography, and the like, posted just...wherever! under a tweet announcing a celebrity's passing, under a piece of artwork, or through a qrt trying to "make a point." it's awful.

I hate the whole atmosphere of the site, there is so much of this...careless subjecting of others to cruelty, to violence, to bigotry...all for the sake of attention. people are so unbelievably rude to each other, because they've cultivated an echo chamber in which their negativity is being rewarded, and so they are driven to say just the nastiest things imaginable to total strangers. and this will be under the guise of "activism," or of "intellectual superiority," or simply because you tweeted something random about a character, or a musician, that you do not particularly care for. it's pure madness. I do not understand how people can willingly spend hours on that website.