8 Clicks from Nowhere ䷀

Dispatches ⌂

Tag: generative content

Chapter List

  • Rolling Randomness

    Back before AI could gurgle out a list of spit-polished ideas replete with some sycophantic grovelling towards our imminent greatness, I was in love with random idea generators.

    Don’t confuse one with the other.

    AI makes ideas by stringing together patterns that make sense.

    Idea generators are the Frankenstein-esque cobbling together of digital randomizers and curious arrays of word-bytes that when triggered result in a mad-lib-style shuffling of the input data towards an often nonsensical list of results. There is no intention. Only chance.

    “Write A ROMANTIC DRAMA about A FISH set in HISTORICAL ROME.”

    “Write A SCIENCE FANTASY about A BARISTA set in A SANATORIUM.”

    “Write AN EPIC POEM about LOST KEYS set in A FAST FOOD KITCHEN.”

    I wrote my fair share of these generators.  The code behind them was simple: a couple data arrays chock full of verbs and nouns and settings and styles, a random number generator, and some user interface bits. It was all coding spare change compared to the corporate-billion budgets of modern AI systems that barf out polished gems of inspiration that could never match the lightweight brilliance of a digital dice roll.

    Creativity, I think, often emerges from serendipity. Something amazing and unique can tumble out of our brains when we trigger those brains with curious nonsense.

    I have asked AI for ideas, nudged it to brainstorm, and it comes back with clever concepts, sure. But none of it stacks as a trigger for the weirdest flights of my imagination compared to the raw random indulgence of a simple idea generator.

    I think maybe the more we extract ourselves, remove our humanity, from the process the more boring the final result—and rolling dice, digital or otherwise, is just random enough to preserve our involvement in the loop.

    Try my randomizer:

    An aspiring novelist finally tracks the secluded typewriter to the spectral rain-soaked crossroads, only to discover their memories were implanted last week.

  • Joy Busters

    Why are we in such a rush to automate the things that give people the most joy?

    I have seen no shortage of posts, cartoons, reels, and tweets on the topic and usually it goes something like this: a person is begrudgingly doing the hard labour while the computer is joyously making art and composing music.

    The irony is thick.

    We built complicated algorithms and robotic mechanizations to churn through calculations and work in factories and clean our homes, and instead we’re having this crazy conversation about how we can distinguish generative music from human compositions in our playlists or avoid buying slop produced novels published in droves via online booksellers.

    Over on another project I write about the blind pursuit of technological advancement and the cost to our humanity.  You might find it interesting, too. 

    AI.

    Generative content replacing our creative efforts. Our intellectual property slurped into algorithms that spit it back out through chatbots and neural engines meant to automate creative effort and pull humanity out of the business of using our imaginations.

    We work hard all our lives so we have time to pursue hobbies, and for many hobbies are painting in the park or playing in a band or cozying up with a keyboard and trying to write the next great novel.

    Are we so eager to hand these things over to algorithms?

    Of course not, you scream into your screen, that’s why we’re all so angry about this so called revolution of generative artificial intelligence. You’re just stating the obvious!

    But someone is eager, no? Someone wants to suck the joy out of humanity, and why is that?