#web development is changing web technology

[daz4i]

if you have an actual story idea for the format you chose (that includes adapting existing horror stories into a different medium), or want to elaborate on why you chose it, please share in the tags!!!!! :D

and ofc as usual, reblog to reach more people, if you'd like 🖤

[balsamibrahim]

Before the War: My Life as a Programmer

Before the war, my life was filled with lines of code, problem-solving, and creative thinking. I was a programmer—building web and mobile apps, writing backend systems in C# and ASP.NET. My days were spent developing projects, learning new technologies, and growing in my career. It wasn’t always easy, but I loved what I did. My work gave me purpose, and my future felt full of possibility.

Now: Life in War

Now, my reality has drastically changed. I live under constant threat, in a war zone, with my family. The sound of explosions has replaced the hum of my computer. Each day is a struggle for survival, filled with fear, grief, and uncertainty.

I have lost loved ones—my cousins, my aunt, and her children. And I have lost my job, my sense of security, and the dreams I once had as a programmer. The war took away my work, but more than that, it has taken away the life I knew.

Hope for the Future

But despite it all, I hold on to hope. Hope that one day, I will return to the work I love. Hope that one day, my family and I can live in peace. Like anyone else in the world, we deserve to feel safe, to dream again, and to rebuild what was lost.

Verified by : @bilal-salah0

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[ms-demeanor]

Why reblog machine-generated art?

When I was ten years old I took a photography class where we developed black and white photos by projecting light on papers bathed in chemicals. If we wanted to change something in the image, we had to go through a gradual, arduous process called dodging and burning.

When I was fifteen years old I used photoshop for the first time, and I remember clicking on the clone tool or the blur tool and feeling like I was cheating.

When I was twenty eight I got my first smartphone. The phone could edit photos. A few taps with my thumb were enough to apply filters and change contrast and even spot correct. I was holding in my hand something more powerful than the huge light machines I'd first used to edit images.

When I was thirty six, just a few weeks ago, I took a photo class that used Lightroom Classic and again, it felt like cheating. It made me really understand how much the color profiles of popular web images I'd been seeing for years had been pumped and tweaked and layered with local edits to make something that, to my eyes, didn't much resemble photography. To me, photography is light on paper. It's what you capture in the lens. It's not automatic skin smoothing and a local filter to boost the sky. This reminded me a lot more of the photomanipulations my friend used to make on deviantart; layered things with unnatural colors that put wings on buildings or turned an eye into a swimming pool. It didn't remake the images to that extent, obviously, but it tipped into the uncanny valley. More real than real, more saturated more sharp and more present than the actual world my lens saw. And that was before I found the AI assisted filters and the tool that would identify the whole sky for you, picking pieces of it out from between leaves.

You know, it's funny, when people talk about artists who might lose their jobs to AI they don't talk about the people who have already had to move on from their photo editing work because of technology. You used to be able to get paid for basic photo manipulation, you know? If you were quick with a lasso or skilled with masks you could get a pretty decent chunk of change by pulling subjects out of backgrounds for family holiday cards or isolating the pies on the menu for a mom and pop. Not a lot, but enough to help. But, of course, you can just do that on your phone now. There's no need to pay a human for it, even if they might do a better job or be more considerate toward the aesthetic of an image.

And they certainly don't talk about all the development labs that went away, or the way that you could have trained to be a studio photographer if you wanted to take good photos of your family to hang on the walls and that digital photography allowed in a parade of amateurs who can make dozens of iterations of the same bad photo until they hit on a good one by sheer volume and luck; if you want to be a good photographer everyone can do that why didn't you train for it and spend a long time taking photos on film and being okay with bad photography don't you know that digital photography drove thousands of people out of their jobs.

My dad told me that he plays with AI the other day. He hosts a movie podcast and he puts up thumbnails for the downloads. In the past, he'd just take a screengrab from the film. Now he tells the Bing AI to make him little vignettes. A cowboy running away from a rhino, a dragon arm-wrestling a teddy bear. That kind of thing. Usually based on a joke that was made on the show, or about the subject of the film and an interest of the guest.

People talk about "well AI art doesn't allow people to create things, people were already able to create things, if they wanted to create things they should learn to create things." Not everyone wants to make good art that's creative. Even fewer people want to put the effort into making bad art for something that they aren't passionate about. Some people want filler to go on the cover of their youtube video. My dad isn't going to learn to draw, and as the person who he used to ask to photoshop him as Ant-Man because he certainly couldn't pay anyone for that kind of thing, I think this is a great use case for AI art. This senior citizen isn't going to start cartooning and at two recordings a week with a one-day editing turnaround he doesn't even really have the time for something like a Fiverr commission. This is a great use of AI art, actually.

I also know an artist who is going Hog Fucking Wild creating AI art of their blorbos. They're genuinely an incredibly talented artist who happens to want to see their niche interest represented visually without having to draw it all themself. They're posting the funny and good results to a small circle of mutuals on socials with clear information about the source of the images; they aren't trying to sell any of the images, they're basically using them as inserts for custom memes. Who is harmed by this person saying "i would like to see my blorbo lasciviously eating an ice cream cone in the is this a pigeon meme"?

The way I use machine-generated art, as an artist, is to proof things. Can I get an explosion to look like this. What would a wall of dead computer monitors look like. Would a ballerina leaping over the grand canyon look cool? Sometimes I use AI art to generate copyright free objects that I can snip for a collage. A lot of the time I use it to generate ideas. I start naming random things and seeing what it shows me and I start getting inspired. I can ask CrAIon for pose reference, I can ask it to show me the interior of spaces from a specific angle.

I profoundly dislike the antipathy that tumblr has for AI art. I understand if people don't want their art used in training pools. I understand if people don't want AI trained on their art to mimic their style. You should absolutely use those tools that poison datasets if you don't want your art included in AI training. I think that's an incredibly appropriate action to take as an artist who doesn't want AI learning from your work.

However I'm pretty fucking aggressively opposed to copyright and most of the "solid" arguments against AI art come down to "the AIs viewed and learned from people's copyrighted artwork and therefore AI is theft rather than fair use" and that's a losing argument for me. In. Like. A lot of ways. Primarily because it is saying that not only is copying someone's art theft, it is saying that looking at and learning from someone's art can be defined as theft rather than fair use.

Also because it's just patently untrue.

But that doesn't really answer your question. Why reblog machine-generated art? Because I liked that piece of art.

It was made by a machine that had looked at billions of images - some copyrighted, some not, some new, some old, some interesting, many boring - and guided by a human and I liked it. It was pretty. It communicated something to me. I looked at an image a machine made - an artificial picture, a total construct, something with no intrinsic meaning - and I felt a sense of quiet and loss and nostalgia. I looked at a collection of automatically arranged pixels and tasted salt and smelled the humidity in the air.

I liked it.

I don't think that all AI art is ugly. I don't think that AI art is all soulless (i actually think that 'having soul' is a bizarre descriptor for art and that lacking soul is an equally bizarre criticism). I don't think that AI art is bad for artists. I think the problem that people have with AI art is capitalism and I don't think that's a problem that can really be laid at the feet of people curating an aesthetic AI art blog on tumblr.

Machine learning isn't the fucking problem the problem is massive corporations have been trying hard not to pay artists for as long as massive corporations have existed (isn't that a b-plot in the shape of water? the neighbor who draws ads gets pushed out of his job by product photography? did you know that as recently as ten years ago NewEgg had in-house photographers who would take pictures of the products so users wouldn't have to rely on the manufacturer photos? I want you to guess what killed that job and I'll give you a hint: it wasn't AI)

Am I putting a human out of a job because I reblogged an AI-generated "photo" of curtains waving in the pale green waters of an imaginary beach? Who would have taken this photo of a place that doesn't exist? Who would have painted this hypersurrealistic image? What meaning would it have had if they had painted it or would it have just been for the aesthetic? Would someone have paid for it or would it be like so many of the things that artists on this site have spent dozens of hours on only to get no attention or value for their work?

My worst ratio of hours to notes is an 8-page hand-drawn detailed ink comic about getting assaulted at a concert and the complicated feelings that evoked that took me weeks of daily drawing after work with something like 54 notes after 8 years; should I be offended if something generated from a prompt has more notes than me? What does that actually get the blogger? Clout? I believe someone said that popularity on tumblr gets you one thing and that is yelled at.

What do you get out of this? Are you helping artists right now? You're helping me, and I'm an artist. I've wanted to unload this opinion for a while because I'm sick of the argument that all Real Artists think AI is bullshit. I'm a Real Artist. I've been paid for Real Art. I've been commissioned as an artist.

And I find a hell of a lot of AI art a lot more interesting than I find human-generated corporate art or Thomas Kincaid (but then, I repeat myself).

There are plenty of people who don't like AI art and don't want to interact with it. I am not one of those people. I thought the gay sex cats were funny and looked good and that shitposting is the ideal use of a machine image generation: to make uncopyrightable images to laugh at.

I think that tumblr has decided to take a principled stand against something that most people making the argument don't understand. I think tumblr's loathing for AI has, generally speaking, thrown weight behind a bunch of ideas that I think are going to be incredibly harmful *to artists specifically* in the long run.

Anyway. If you hate AI art and you don't want to interact with people who interact with it, block me.

[b1asho]

Huzzahh, it's species number 3! (There's a total of 6, including humans. 7 if you count artificial intelligences, 8 if you count the uhh other intelligences).

An official up to date visual for everyone's favorite communist amphibians, the Kixeli, and some up-to-date info!! ->

Kixeli are a small sophont species hailing from a planet covered mostly in ocean. They are amphibious, and originally evolved to switch between swimming and climbing using their webbed hands and powerful arms.

Their skin is permeable, allowing them to extend their time underwater to hunt and gather as well as reproduce, but due to their larger body and brain size/oxygen needs this isn’t sustainable and they must return to the surface.

Alongside their frequent trips outside the water, they also have a mucus layer and several specialized glands (including in their face by their eyes) to help remove excess salt and change levels of urea in their body to help make sure they dont lose resources when in the ocean.

Kixeli are omnivorous, with a focus on fruits and sealife. many cultures have a preference against eating anything that lives above water, including birds and the like, because they see themselves as spiritual equals to those animals as fellow air breathers.

They are oviparous, and have a specific mating season.

Most Kixeli have multiple variable spawn partners and see it as strange to be nailed down to one. Anyone who participated lays their eggs in a communal tide pool carved out in their communities.

Hatchlings are entirely aquatic wirh gills until later months of age, where they will begin to poke their head above water for air and start interacting more with the adults around them, who feed them a nutritive crop milk as they have already absorbed most of their tail by now.

This period is also the beginning of their understanding of language.

Once they lose their tail and grow in their limbs, they are still mostly helpless until those fully develop and myst cling to a caretaker adult in the community (blood parents don’t necessarily always raise their own children, but as someone who laid eggs they are responsible for children as a caretaker so anyone who didn’t want eggs gets left alone).

During their puberty, they will develop adult skin markings, and some can even end up changing sexes (much for the same reason some of them grow gliding membranes, as the result of population and resources balance in their surroundings).

Speakijg of that, there are two categories of Kixeli in their communities: Kel (swimmer) and Arasit (flier).

Arasit are just a rare continuation of their life cycle, since most Kixeli kids end up growing into Kel adults.

Sometimes, though, an Arasit will develop in case the community strongly needs to seek out new territory over long distance (triggered by close proximity to many other Kixeli and a variety of other unknown gactors, like grasshoppers turnkng into locusts.) They can’t truly fly, but they can use the powerful ocean winds and even some launching technology to glide very far to scout new resources and other communities).

Arasit are highly celebrated as voyagers, but Kel are also valued as providers for their existing community and even accompany voyages on ships to help their Arasit stay alive.

Some Arasit will cut and cauterize their membranes to make it easier for them to swim to symbolize they are staying in the community, though usually, they just poke small holes in there so they can wear clothes and be sanitary.

Their blood uses the hemocyanin molecule to carry oxygen, making their blood a bright blue when oxygenated and a thin blue/clear when unoxygenated (so you can see the other warmish colored pigments in there when it’s inside them, that yellowish stuff)

Their ancestors dwelled in deeper, cooler water where this blood type was most advantageous, but a global warming period brought them up to warm waters and eventually above the surface to capitalize on resources.

During this process, they developed some ways to improve the molecule’s lower efficiency in the heat. For one, they kept a small body size so there’s less to deal with. Another thing is that they get oxygen (albeit a small amount) from all over their body constantly through their skin, also somewhat making up for it.

The main mechanism, though, is their metabolism/temperature. They can quickly adjust their metabolism depending on the oxygen conditions in their surroundings to prevent immediate failure if they don’t have access to the right conditions to otherwise cope (this, and along with hemocyanin’s natural ability to handle low oxygen and their skin breathing, means they can tolerate very low oxygen areas that would cause a human to faint, though they’ll typically be pretty out of commission too, and this can have longer lasting effects on their health from the whiplash.)

they use their surroundings for heat when they aren’t doing anything too strenuous, and because they aren’t really producing much of their own they can tolerate even higher temperatures that would normally put them out of commission (and they actually heavily rely on that heat for ease in a lot of other processes), to do anything that has bigger oxygen needs, they can dip into cooler water/shade for periods of higher activity (but can’t stay too cold for too long or else aforementioned other processes will shut down, though it does increase the effectiveness to the point where they can do a whole lot and allows them to swim/navigate cooler areas where their early competitors couldn’t return to, it only as long as they got back quickly and warmed up)

they basically swing between these two extremes but tend to stay at a warmish middle-ground, wearing heating pads on part of their body while still letting larger areas cool off, if that makes sense.

Hemocyanin’s other properties don’t automatically give them a longer life, in fact theirs is very short compared to other species, but it does make them resistant to cancers (a common threat on their sunny planet) and the spread of diseases in their dense communities

Being cold-blooded wasn’t a problem on their mostly tropical planet. It is a considerable problem once they left it, though, hence the heating pads most wear to warm up.

many also live in areas without a large body of water nearby (or an easy way to access said body of water) but still need to stay damp to maintain their music layer and trap oxygen, so many also carry spray bottles or wet rags with them to always stay damp.

Kixeli are highly social (with their name even roughly translating to "belonging together"). they rarely live in groups of less than 5.

They experience severe negative side effects from isolation. Their naturally intense empathy also makes it extremely damaging for them to see other Kixeli injured or dead, sometimes leading to their own death from shock if they were the one that did it (though this has not stopped wars over their scarce resources in the past, typically because that intense sense of kinship was naturally strongest towards those among their own community, and if Their community was suffering then they had to get rid of the source of it by any means. )

This period nearly drove them to extinction, and led to a Global Community movement that argued for intercommunity cooperation and the end of 'us and them thinking'.

Due to their sliminess, Kixeli normally keep clothing to a minimum and overall don’t have a need for it beyond temperature control and ornamentation.

They have none of their own social taboos about nakedness, having no external genitalia, but still often clothe themselves to the standards of others due to the pressure/need to be polite from other species.

They also have few class divides within their own communities, with everyone working for the good of the whole, and no sex/gender roles beyond squirter and egg layer since everyone cares for the eggs.

To humans, their language sounds like birdsong, with lots of repetitive noises and subtle shifts in pattern and tone.

Their unique vocalization makes their languages hard to learn and even harder to speak, but they themselves are incredible mimics (only surpassed in some ways by humans because lips and teeth).

The fin on their forehead is similar to eyebrows in communicating emotion or tone. They can see a similar color spectrum to humans and love bright contrasting colors similar to their own skin patterns.

They favor “fast food”, or anything that can be carried easily as you swing around in a tree or on a boat.

Payment/restaurants doesn’t really exist for them, they just have areas where food brought in by providers is available to the community (or people just eat what they catch and then bring extra to the community.)

They also don’t chew their food, though some dishes are meant to be squished to the roof of the mouth with the tongue to experience the flavor

Their clothing is often “readable” in that many individuals wear clothing that represents a certain story, event in their life, event in their community, or mythical hero that can be derived from looking at their clothing from the head down.

In the two guys up there, the Arasit is wearing the equivalent of booty shorts cut scantily close to their Hole depicting one version about the founding of the first community (though a simplified one, so it’s actually more like the equivalent of wearing a crop top tee with a little monochrome dog on it or something).

This kind of imagery is common among Arasit, even modern ones, because founding/birth/life are their associations in religious cultures.

The Kel alongside them is wearing a more complex getup meant to show the inciting incident of one of the nomadic communities mythic hero’s journey, when he was cast from the star sea by the wicked Long Arms into the deep sea.

This would be seen as all most goth since this part of the story is seen as eerie and it depicts their underworld along the hem and bracelets.

By wearing clothing associated with a specific figure//story, they can also show gender identity based on whether that figure or hod was male, female, neuther, etc(helping people draw the right conclusions despite the visible evidence of their sex written on all their skin. The clothing and any makeup done on the fin is usually their main reference point for judging how to address someone. )

[mirai-e-jump]

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger Photo Book: ~King of Kings~

Gira Husty Profile: King of Shugoddam, the most powerful country where the guardian god resides. Learning of king Racules Husty's goal of "prioritizing the unity of Chikyu, even at the expense of the people," he rebels against the world by playing the role of an "evil king" in order to protect everyone. His partner is God Kuwagata, and he arms himself with the KuwagataOhger armor.

Yanma Gast Profile: King of N'kosopa, country of technology. Born in a slum, he rose to the position of king with just his computer. He's a skilled engineer, and all of the equipment for the Royal Sentai was developed by Yanma. He's an ambitious man with a desire to improve, with many people looking up to and calling him "President" due to his yankii spirit.

Hymeno Ran Profile: Queen of Ishabana, country of fine art and medicine. While beautiful in appearance, she has an extremely selfish personality, and values "beauty" above all else. On the other hand, she has no hesitation in saving someone's life, and has the face of a doctor who brilliantly saves lives. She maintains a "selfish style" in battle, not caring about her surroundings, and fights using the King's Weapon: Scythe Mode.

Rita Kaniska Profile: King of Gokkan, country of ice and snow, they're the Chief International Judge who believes that neutrality is justice. They're always reserved and cautious, and don't show emotion, so they're often seen as a stubborn person……but, they actually have a compassionate side……? At the climax of the battle, they face the enemy with a cool style of "remaining immovable," unaffected by anything.

Kaguragi Dybowski Profile: Lord of Toufu, an agricultural country. He's always smiling and has a gentle and friendly personality. However, the truth is he's willing to use dirty tricks to protect his country, and has exceptional negotiating techniques to get things done to work to his advantage. He's concerned about his younger sister Suzume, who married Shugoddam's Racules.

Jeramie Brasieri Profile: Born to a father who was the sixth hero that saved mankind 2,000 years ago and a mother who was a Bugnarak, he has passed down the history of Chikyu for a long time as the "storyteller." His right arm is that of a Bugnarak, and he has a special ability to create strong webs from inside his body. His existence stirs up both the kings and Bugnarak, using words and actions that are difficult to read.

Racules Husty Profile: As king of Shugoddam, he united the five kingdoms with his unparalleled and overwhelming charisma, but was defeated in trial by combat with his brother Gira, and was dethroned as king. While Gira and the others were away from Chikyu, he became the king of Shugoddam and ruled the country as Shugo Mask……

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger: Costume Guide The gorgeous costumes of the kings, which are reminiscent of the characteristics of each country. A guide to the current costumes and accessories worn by the characters since the beginning of the story.

Gira Husty (Top) Costume of Gira, who replaced Racules as king of Shugoddam. The cape remains the same, but the costume and boots underneath have changed!

(Middle) His recognizable oversized shirt and the bright red harness that highlight it. Red and black straps cross over the wide collar.

(Bottom) The brown boots were worn by Gira as he escaped during the beginning of the story. The necklace is designed with five pieces of red glass.

Yanma Gast (Top Right) Costume from the start of the new chapter two years later. The jacket has a design with a black belt hanging down. The cuffs have a zipper that can be opened and closed.

(Top Left) The wide pants are designed to be divided into upper and lower parts above the knee. The inner one has two lines on the front part. The color blue is used strikingly throughout.

(Middle) The cuff earring has ridges that grow alongside the ear, two chains, and N'kosopa's "King's Proof." The headphones have a cord connected to a switch.

(Bottom) Items that Yanma wears on his arms. The design of the shoes are silver with blue accents. They also have decorations that resemble headphones.

Kaguragi Dybowski (Top) A luxurious and gorgeous costume that just screams, "I'm the lord of Toufu!" The sleeves of the haori have a distinct pattern on both the front and back. The beehive like patterns are also a key point.

(Bottom) The footwear seen under his kimono are boots. Furthermore, the soles are shaped to be like geta.

Hymeno Ran (Top) From the new chapter, the shape of the sleeves and skirt have changed, and the large ribbon on the back is also one of its main features. The asymmetrical skirt produces cuteness and elegance. The tiara contains the "King's Proof."

(Middle Top) The previous costume was made up of a top, skirt, and corset. The skirt has volume, with the front being short and the back being long. The corset is laced up at the back.

(Middle Bottom) The sequin encrusted tights are the same design throughout the entire story. Also, the glittering shoes made entirely of gold are one of Hymeno's signature items.

(Bottom) Hymeno's Favorite Accessories: Hymeno has a large number of accessories, including earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, which among them she'll use at random. This is the commitment to beauty!

Rita Kaniska (Top Right) From the new chapter, Rita's clothes changed to a shorter length jacket. The metallic purple collar accentuates the black base color of the outfit.

(Top Left) The previous costume was a tailcoat type of long jacket. The black cloth is decorated with snowflake like patterns. The design of the purple collar and cuffs are the same as the costume for the new chapter.

(Bottom Left) The black gloves are one of the most distinctive features of Rita's costume. The bracelet decorated in the center has Gokkan's "King's Proof." There's a similar emblem on the cuff earring.

(Bottom Right) Rita is characterized by their all black outfit. Their knee length long boots are of course, also all black.

Jeramie Brasieri From the new chapter, an elegant cape has been added to Jeramie's costume. In the previous costume, his right arm had a longer sleeve. The top is asymmetrical with the left side being longer.

Handwritten Messages Check out the handwritten comments from the cast!

Sakai Taisei (Gira Husty)

"What do you respect about Gira, the character you play?" The fact that he tries to understand people's feelings!!

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" A country where children can eat until they're full!!

"What do you think is the best part of Gira's costume?" The cape he got from his big brother!!

"Please give a message to Gira!" I want you to be happy!

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" I'm going to rule the world!!

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" You guys are the gears~ ^_^

Watanabe Aoto (Yanma Gast)

"What do you respect about Yanma, the character you play?" His sense of distance and respect for people.

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" A country where the youth are the driving force.

"What do you think is the best part of Yanma's costume?" The sandals that I literally ran in for a whole year.

"Please give a message to Yanma!" I'm on top!!

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" Thank you for the past year!!

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Thank you so much for your support. Now, you can also be a Royal Sentai.

Murakami Erica (Hymeno Ran)

"What do you respect about Hymeno, the character you play?" Her inner strength 💛

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" A country without war.

"What do you think is the best part of Hymeno's costume?" The asymmetrical design!

"Please give a message to Hymeno!" I'm encouraged by your nobility!

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" Thank you all for making this past year so enjoyable. Really, thank you so much 💛

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Filming for King-Ohger has finished, but we'll live on in everyone's hearts! Thank you so much for your support!!

Hirakawa Yuzuki (Rita Kaniska)

"What do you respect about Rita, the character you play?" The part where they never waver.

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" A country where many different languages are spoken.

"What do you think is the best part of Rita's costume?" The chain attached to the jacket.

"Please give a message to Rita!" You've got humanity and are cute :)

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" We're family! Thank you so much for the past year!

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Thank you so much for loving King-Ohger so much!

Kaku So (Kaguragi Dybowski)

"What do you respect about Kaguragi, the character you play?" That he'll dirty himself for the sake of others.

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" Protein supplied.

"What do you think is the best part of Kaguragi's costume?" The emotions (design) on the sleeves.

"Please give a message to Kaguragi!" Be selfish every once in awhile.

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" Thank you all so much, we're family forever.

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Thank you so much for your support. Let's meet again soon!!

Ikeda Masashi (Jeramie Brasieri)

"What do you respect about Jeramie, the character you play?" His vocabulary.

"If you were a king, what kind of country would you want to build?" Peaceful World.

"What do you think is the best part of Jeramie's costume?" It gives off the feeling of a prince.

"Please give a message to Jeramie!" Thanks ^_^

"Please give a message to the king cast members!" I was really happy with the six of us!

"Finally, a message to the fans of King-Ohger!" Thank you for all the love and good dreams.

[vincentvalenfine]

SLAMMING my hands on the table to yell Vincent realising he’s his partners first everything and developing the worlds biggest corruption kink - YES he will be angsty and guilt ridden about it but will that stop his brain from relishing every new thing they do? Absolutely not.

He hates it - but he loves it.

The knowledge that you're so innocent to the suggestions he comes up with makes him hate that primal part of him that longs to see you vulnerable, splayed out beneath him with every last inch of you bared to his gaze. He hates the beast in him that relishes your blushes and moans, every delicious gasp and cry as he introduces both you and himself to yet another new pleasure (or pain, sometimes even both at once).

But he loves being able to pleasure you so thoroughly. Loves the way you give every last ounce of trust to him as he ties your arms back for the first time, the deep affection in your eyes something he thought he'd never be willing to accept, hadn't thought he deserved, and yet drinks up with desperation whenever you offer it to him.

He especially loves the way the rope leaves elegant lattices of red all over your body once he removes it.

The struggle is in his own lack of varied experience, but he makes up for it with discreet, secretive research, afternoons in the library hiding his presence as he reads literature steamy enough to make his face threaten to turn red permanently. He harasses Reeve to teach him the art of navigating the net, and forces himself to purchase one of the newer models of phone that lets him browse the web to further his knowledge of the diverse realm of pleasure... how times have changed. Who knew the drive to try out just about anything he could with you would actually force him to acquaint himself with modern technology?

He hates when something new hurts you enough to make you cry, but he loves kissing the tears off your cheeks, tasting the salt on his lips as he murmurs his apologies and promises to make it better afterward. Every time the guilt claws at his guts, he tells himself he can enjoy these things because you want him to.

Pleasing you means more to him than any of his self-loathing.

[boobertronian]

CHAPTER 0 - PROLOGUE

Where all things began

Proofread by @vorrentis

Word counts : 794 words

All works are fiction

“ Hmm, ok are we on ? Oh yes “

“ Ok, first time doing this, well, not actually the first time, but the first for this event “

“ This is Tyler Nakamura, video log today is Sunday, time is 21:30, the day is 04/03/2171”

“Been a while I’m doing this so could be laggy, apologize for that “

“Location is Nakamura’s Residence, and this is my personal report”

“ Welcome to my world, I’m Tyler, as you already know. I live in a world where life is well developed. Utopia ? Not that far reach . Dystopia ? Not that depressive.

But people are well lived, technological advancements, healthcare, businesses, you name it, they got it all figured out.

Sounds good isn’t it ? Even language barriers aren’t a thing anymore, the cultures are merging into each other, like a hot pot so to say. It’s pretty cool actually, people can interact with each other more.

We have everything, people live their lives with prospects.

Or that’s what they think

Not sure when this happened, or where it happened.

Not sure if it was seismic activities ?  Natural causes ? Paranormal activities ? Government secret projects ? Freak accident ?

But since that day, things changed

There were reports of missing people. At first , we all thought they were just your typical news that people either care or not caring too much , like how we usually do.

But then, more reports are coming. Reports about missing people without a trace, people disappeared leaving little clues, making headlines on any sort of media available. Police forces are doing their bests, but, they couldn’t find something they don’t even know where to look.

What is happening ? What’s truly going on ? Those are the questions I heard the most around here. Fear are starting to form in communities , neighborhoods, towns.

People are still going on with their lives, we all do. But you can tell there are changes in their approaches in life. Rumors about missing people are spreading like gossips, or horror stories we normally use to scare our scaredy friends.

I’ve been in this career since my teenagers age, yes, I’m somewhat of a curious person. I love to report, I love to find mysteries, being freelancers gave me that opportunities, even if my parents or siblings think I’m out of my mind or, just find a corporate work. But this event triggers me , my urges for finding the truth are both my blessings, and my curses, I guess in this case you can say both ?

Because, I never knew, that one day, I met them.

Them, yes, you might be curious who’s “them”

You must heard the word “superheroes” ?

Like, in those comics they used to sell for people ? Or in those tv shows & movies back then ?

To us, in this world, it’s a forgotten myth

We’re too busy with our others accommodations, “superheroes” is like an ancient term that my great grandparents used to favor.

Funny, because, I think “them” fit that term

They’re not wearing tights, no fancy outfit like those comics my grandparents used to have, not like his antique action figures.

“Them”, They are different

I’ve seen rumors about “them”. Those dark webs and secret social media groups , you know, they always have something the world couldn’t fathom.

I’ve searched every single info about them as possible , every corner, chatting to online groups. I went crazy for them. My mind went numb looking for something I didn’t even know if it’s real.

Was I being pranked ?  Possibly ? Maybe ?

I didn’t give up, I love this job so much, I love this so much, it’s like an addiction, a cure to my hunger.

Weeks of finding, weeks of notes stacking on my filthy desk. My sleeps were terrible, I kept thinking about “them” even in my lucid dreams.

Then, I found clues, clues that lead me to “them”.

I guess I got lucky that day, my patience finally paid off. I found myself in a group of anonymous talking about “them”.

Wasn’t an easy task for sure to ask strangers online. But no matter what I have to find out about “them”

I found sightings of “them”, blurry photos, not sure how they were being captured. Photos of humanoid figures with bright round eyes, kinda like how those bigfoot or mothman pictures in the old archives, and, surprisingly, they’re coming in different colors. Strange isn’t it ?

Maybe they were edited photos ? Like those generative contents ?

Or maybe, they are the mysteries that I need in my boring life.

This, is the story about “them”, or should I say, KAMEN RIDERS.

[house-of-mirrors]

This is older text (from a state of some confusion) but hm, still interesting to have a reference to real world star names given almost all the judgements are called by epithets, usually with a theme around a color or domain. It wouldn't change what humans call things of course, but still interesting. Irem judgement destiny suggests you can see the sapphir'd king from earth with a simple telescope. Where in the sky might be the halved, the white, the red, the gold? What have astronomers who know nothing about the magic lore named them? As time goes on, what new technology and theories will develop based on Neath knowledge and in-universe physics, completely different from that in our timeline? In a certain distant future, what do the spider webs look like through earth's observational methods?

There are almost infinite stars. Surely they can't all be tyrants? (And some of them must be single—)

This further supports my totally serious theory that the universe at large is normal and the high wilderness is that part you don't go to!

[jointhefediverse]

💫 Join the Fediverse! 💫

Greetings, fellow bloggers! We welcome you to join us in discovering, honoring, and promoting the potential future of social networking—commonly referred to as the "Fediverse."

The Fediverse, or Federation Universe, refers to a collective of online platforms that utilize the web protocol known as ActivityPub, which has set a standard of excellence in regards to both protecting and respecting users' online privacies.

There's a good chance in the past few years that you've caught wind of the fedi family's critically acclaimed Mastodon; however, there are many other unique platforms worth your consideration...

✨ Where To Begin?

Conveniently enough, from the minds of brilliant independent developers, there already likely exists a Fediverse equivalent to your favorite socials. Whether it's an opinion from the critics, or from the community alike—the following popular websites are commonly associated with one another:

Friendica 🐰 = Facebook Mastodon 🐘 = Twitter Pixelfed 🐼 = Instagram PeerTube ���� = YouTube Lemmy 🐭 = Reddit

It's worth mentioning, too, a few other sites and forks thereof that are worthy counterparts, which be: Pleroma 🦊 & Misskey 🐱, microblogs also similar to Twitter/Mastodon. Funkwhale 🐋 is a self-hosting audio streamer, which pays homage to the once-popular GrooveShark. For power users, Hubzilla 🐨 makes a great choice (alongside Friendica) when choosing macroblogging alternatives.

✨ To Be Clear...

To address the technicalities: aside from the "definitive" Fediverse clients, we will also be incorporating any platforms that utilize ActivityPub-adjacent protocols as well. These include, but are not limited to: diaspora*; AT Protocol (Bluesky 🦋); Nostr; OStatus; Matrix; Zot; etc. We will NOT be incorporating any decentralized sites that are either questionably or proven to be unethical. (AKA: Gab has been exiled.)

✨ Why Your Privacy Matters

You may ask yourself, as we once did, "Why does protecting my online privacy truly matter?" While it may seem innocent enough on the surface, would it change your mind that it's been officially shared by former corporate media employees that data is more valuable than money to these companies? Outside of the ethical concerns surrounding these concepts, there are many other reasons why protecting your data is critical, be it: security breaches which jeopardize your financial info and risk identity theft; continuing to feed algorithms which use psychological manipulation in attempts to sell you products; the risk of spyware hacking your webcams and microphones when you least expect it; amongst countless other possibilities that can and do happen to individuals on a constant basis. We wish it could all just be written off as a conspiracy... but, with a little research, you'll swiftly realize the validity of these claims are not to be ignored any longer. The solution? Taking the decentralized route.

✨ Our Mission For This Blog

Our mission for establishing this blog includes 3 core elements:

To serve as a hub which anybody can access in order to assist themselves in either: becoming a part of the Fediverse, gaining the resources/knowledge to convince others to do the very same, and providing updates on anything Fedi-related.

We are determined to do anything within our power to prevent what the future of the Internet could become if active social users continue tossing away their data, all while technologies are advancing at faster rates with each passing year. Basically we'd prefer not to live in a cyber-Dystopia at all costs.

Tumblr (Automattic) has expressed interest in switching their servers over to ActivityPub after Musk's acquisition of then-Twitter, and are officially in the transitional process of making this happen for all of us. We're hoping our collective efforts may at some point be recognized by @staff, which in turn will encourage their efforts and stand by their decision.

With that being stated, we hope you decide to follow us here, and decide to make the shift—as it is merely the beginning. We encourage you to send us any questions you may have, any personal suggestions, or corrections on any misinformation you may come across.

From the Tender Hearts of, ✨💞 @disease & @faggotfungus 💞✨

[gallusrostromegalus]

Your line about Unohana's smallpox scars made me wonder: are there any soul reapers that can remember when they were alive? (If they were alive? I'm not sure if all souls originate in the world of the living)

All souls are "born" in the Living World and eventually move to Spirit World (if they don't go directly to Hell). The majority of souls in the afterlife do not remember their previous lives, but a significant portion do.

Souls Born in Soul Society:

Children and babies that die in utero or before they can reliably recognize their names, very old people that have lost most of their memory and people who suffered catastrophic memory loss while alive move to to Spirit World and become the souls of babies gestating in mothers there. Souls that are Born in spirit world do not remember their previous lives because there isn't much, if anything to remember.

Sometimes very young children and babies will appear in the queue to the afterlife, and in AEIWAM, the 7th Division manages incoming souls and takes care to place any children that come through the queue in SOME kind of care in the area their soul was assigned to. This is a recent development under Captain Komamura, but something the 7th has been wanting to do since it's inception. It's only recently that technology and staffing has been able to allow it. The majority of souls in Soul Society, and by extension, in the Gotei-13, were born in soul society.

Even though they have no memories, sometimes things will come through- people born in soul society are much more likely to have birthmarks. While the superstition is that if you're born with one, it relates to how you died, there's no evidence that so-called "marks of the previous life" are from death specifically. There's also no evidence that they're not :)

Characters that were Born in Spirit World with Marks Of The Previous Life:

Izuru: Born with two red dots about an inch apart on his ankle

Byakuya: One absolutely perfect beauty mark smack in the middle of his left asscheek

Shuuhei: Smattering of thick, raised skin patches across his upper back.

Ukitake: hard to see because he's so careful to avoid the sun but there's a couple patches on his abdomen and thigh that are totally devoid of pigment and never tan

Shunsui: Partially developed third nipple in his right armpit

Soi Fon: weird tooth growing out of the roof of her mouth.

Komamura: the paw-pads on his left foot are pink.

Aizen: Born with partially webbed toes.

Yumichika: The Beauty mark on his cheek is painted on. The one on his dick is not, much to his chagrin.

Yachiru: changed her origin story to HURT :), no birthmark but when her teeth came in, her adult right canine came in and the baby canine is just. Missing.

Urahara: patch of something that looks like freckles, but bright red, on his throat. Only shows up if he's been doing cardio.

Yoruichi: small, diamond-shaped white patch of skin over the lower part of her sternum.

Souls That Forget:

Souls over the age of about 3 will (barring something bizarre happening) reincarnate in the afterlife at the developmental age they dies at, and stand a 50/50 chance of forgetting their previous lives entirely. *Why* is unclear to the shinigami (it's a side-effect of the wheel being jammed), but the effect seems to be slightly more likely if the soul died a particularly violent death.

The loss occurs when the soul steps through the door out of the Queue and into spirit world. This sudden loss and confusion is part of the reason it's so important for Shingami to escort incoming souls to their destination in spirit world, any why Ryoka (AKA, souls that somehow got out of the queue and into Soul Society without checking in with the Shinigami) tend to be chaotic little bastards.

Souls that forget their previous lives upon stepping through the gate usually retain muscle memory, learned skills and a handful of details- the name they answer to, how old they were when they died, and sometimes they remember what they died of. Souls who do forget often tend to be emotionally ambivalent about it- on the one hand, not knowing who you are or where you came from kind of sucks, but after seeing their friends who remember wracked by grief or traumatized by a violent end, it can also feel like a strange blessing or a fresh start. Characters who were reincarnated at the age they died, but do not remember their previous lives:

Unohana: Does not remember her name, did remember a lot of slikks relating to ritual purification and swordsmanship

Hitsugaya: Sole memory of standing in a blizzard/thunderstorm as a small child

Tousen: Only his given name, and the feeling he was killed by a lightning strike.

Matsumoto: Given Name, no-context memories of a pet cat

Shinji: Does not remember his name, remembers a weird number of folk songs and a really good fish recipe though

Ikkaku: Remembers fuck-all. His sister DOES remember him and that's a fun chapter in the drafts

Souls That Remember:

Souls that do reincarnate and remember their previous lives remember varying amounts- Some people can recall previous lives with incredible detail, some people have only a very vague or uncertain recollection, others have very clear but context-less memories that they know came from a previous life but little more than that.

Just like people who forget, people who remember have mixed opinions- Some find it a burden to have memories of a family lost, some are really glad they still remember their loved ones, but the majority are a combination of nostalgic and wistful about their previous lives.

Characters who reincarnated and remember at least some of their previous lives:

Yamamoto: Died at about age 10, but remembers every detail. Died of Being Next To A Volcano When It Exploded.

Tama: Her memory bordering on eidetic, including her cause of death (bad)

Momo: Has many memories but not context. Remembers another little girl (sister?), and living out on a farm with a goat.

Rukia: She was very young, but does have a handful of distinct memories of her previous life, including Hisana making stupid faces at her to make her laugh.

Hisana: Recalls her previous life almost entirely. She and Rukia barely escaped a house fire only to die of hypothermia.

Hollows:

Nearly all lesser hollows remember their previous lives, and what caused their soul chain to rot, but once a hollow is consumed by another hollow, or becomes part of a Menos Grande, they lose all but a few memories, and those tend to be vauge and distorted. By the time a hollow becomes a Vasto Lorde, it's been torn apart and absorbed so many new soul fragments that it can't really be called the same soul at all. If there are Souls that are "born" outside of the living world, it's hollows like that. A Few Notable Exceptions:

Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerbuck: They were a Genus Loci (the spirit of a place) that died in a calamity, but since a Genus Loci is functionally a Kami, when they hollowfied and re-appeared in Hueco Mundo, they started out at Vasto Lorde Class hollows. They divided into the 'two' souls they are now out of sheer loneliness and because the memory of the calamity was so awful they hoped they would forget. It sort of worked- Both of them only half-remember who and what they are.

Nnoitra Gilga: A singularly single-minded individual, Nnoitra forgot almost everything including his Name but not what caused him to become a hollow in the first place. He doesn't exactly have context for those memories until about half an hour before he dies, but he also doesn't care- he's always been a man to tell himself whatever story suits his needs.

Wonderweiss: Wiess was a soul that absolutely should not have been able to hollowfy but did so because a Divine Power fucked up to a SPECTACULAR degree, and like Coyote and Gingerbuck, started out as a vasto-lorde class hollow. He does sort-of forget who he is for a while thanks to Aizen's Meddling, and while he has the facts of who he is, nobody quite makes the full connection to WHO he is until about halfway through Act 2.

Weirdos:

SOME PEOPLE manage to enter the spirit world in completely ass-backwards and stupid ways, and sometimes this effects their memories:

Ichimaru Gin: Probably has the MOST understanding of what's going on of anyone in the series but unfortunately, he's fucking stupid.

Mimihagi: The Second-most-informed person in the series, but turns out getting dismembered, undergoing a catastrophic database error and surviving as a fragment of your previous self does a number on your ability to remember anything with any clarity.

Zaraki Kenpachi: Developed a soul in the living world when he wasn't really supposed to, reincarnated in a place he should not have been able to, got thrown out and survived a fall that should have killed him, was raised by a being that normally would have eaten him, and has generally been Why-Are-You-Not-Dead-ing his way through his existence.

Quincy:

If, How much, What Version and The Actual Veracity of what any Quincy in the Wandenreich remembers about their previous lives is ENTIRELY determined by Yhwach and what suits his needs :)

[transgenderdoctorwhomst]

okay i Need to know about abstergo cloning and weaponizing altaïr my brain is buzzing just reading that

Okay, so first, there's two facts we need to remember about altaïr: he is practically a religious figure to the assassins, and he is a fucking killing machine.

The next thing we need to remember is abstergo has cloning technology, and quite reasonably, access to desmonds DNA any time after his initial kidnapping. They also have the Animus, for accessing ancestral memories.

So, with those things kept in mind, what might Abstergo do with these pieces?

Abstergo sees, through Desmonds time as Altaïr, that altaïr is an absolute force to be reckoned with. He can take down a dozen trained soldiers alone. He can take down a dozen trained assassins alone. When he is loyal to a cause, he will not let ANYTHING get in the way of his goals.

So you clone him using Desmonds DNA. So you implant his memories into the clone using a focused and intense application of the Bleeding Effect.

And, importantly, there is a couple very good frames of time where you might be able to manipulate him into working for the templars. Or, successfully convincing him abstergo is the assassins, and the assassins are the templars.

The first one is immediately after he fails to get the piece of eden and is demoted. He has lost everything, been called a traitor, and if you time giving him memories correctly, believes he has been killed for this. So you tell him: you are meant for greater things, we of the future have saved you, and we have an enemy for you to destroy to set the world right. You have seen the leadership of the assassins fail, and we have learned from the mistakes of the templars of the past. The assassins are failing again, and the end of the world is near. They are trying to prevent us from saving it. You must stop them.

The second time is a bit more tricky: right after he kills Al Mualim. The end of the memories you have easy access to. Here you tell him; through the piece of eden, you've been brought to the future. You did many great things in your time. But now the world is ending, and we need your help.

You can tell him one of two things, that the assassins, under corrupt and misguided leadership, are mistakenly preventing the world from being saved. We have tried and cannot correct them. The only option is to demoralize them and kill their leaders, to keep them out of the way long enough to ensure the world is safe. Seeing you fight against them can help make them realize they need to change tactic and focus more on saving the world than fighting the templars.

The other, is that abstergo is run by assassins, and their enemy is the templars. It has been nearly a thousand years, surely you can expect the respective groups might look different in this modern day. This is a much harder sell; you can't tell him of the web of control abstergo has, you have to tightly control who he talks to, and you have to preemptively convince him the "templars" will try to lie to him because they are afraid of him.

Of course, Abstergo has put a lot of development into controlling and manipulating people with and without the use of a piece of eden. Altaïr is immune to the Apple, not drugs or really aggressive subliminal or whatever other tactics abstergo uses.

Either way, you get this: a major figure to the assassins, reappeared in the modern day, pointed directly at the assassins to obliterate any single person in his way. An absolute fucking nightmare to stand up to. Believing that the modern assassins are wrong.

And the assassins have to contend with this. Fight him off. Decide if they want to capture or kill him. Realize they might be able to do this with other figures, like ezio. In short: a fucking nightmare.

[theanxiousghostartist]

TMAGP 36 - Out of the Box Spoilers

Theories and Reactions

Reactions:

Wooooo! I'm early this week!

Not trying to get some Will Wood tickets while listening lol

Aww noo, Celia's having a panic attack. She really feels guilty about Sam... ))):

Aww, Alice helping her through it is sweet.

Did Alice and Sam help each other through panic attacks?

Yes, Celia talk to Alice!! Communicate!!!!

There could be other portals?? Alice is spot on with the Fears leaking out!

Alice, I really hope you survive.

Isolated? THE LONLEY? NORRIS? MARTIN????

Arlo Slade author of the post.

Booth MK2 Founders - Lila Bailey and Chris Chavez

Elric Capital Ltd - Primary Funders

So a photobooth for work from home.

Uncanny?????????

So... 3D coworkers then.

What do you mean it's breathing??????

SAFETY WARNING??? Ohhh, so it IS isolating you.

Unpredictable???? It turns itself on????

It just threw two people together?

Gergory from BIT

GEGORY WAS MORPHING? LIKE THE DISTORTION???

TRANSFERANCE???????????

My dude, you were transferred into the MK2. Maybe it's another Lonely domain?

Noo, make sure Randal is ok!!! Ok, so he has food for 1 - 2 weeks, that's good.

YOU PRAYED TO THE BOOTH MK2????????

Kill process????

You could REACH THROUGH THE SCREEN??? LET'S GO, FIGHTING BACK!! oh, shit no, that makes you prime Avatar material...

Buddy is out for vengeance and I am here for it.

So Greogory is definitely an Avatar.

Alice has learned so much, OMG /pos

Yes, CONNECT IT TO THE SUPERNATURAL!!

DYHARD BOUNDING LET'S GOOOOO

FREDDY WANTS HER TO CONTACT BONZO????????

YES, ALICE CONNECT IT!!

Gwen, my girl, are you ok????

Ok, HC a QPR with Celia and Georgie! (:

SAM HAS A PROFILE ON CELIA'S NETFLIX??? That is so cute omg

Ok, so are we saying she pushed Sam???

PLEASE CELIA TELL GEORGIE!!

Theories:

So, for the casement it seems that we got an Avatar of the Lonely invading the Tech and forcing Arlo into his domain. This avatar could be the same one from the last Lonely case we got, in TMAGP 33, and there is a possibility this is Peter Lukas. However, again, with this case, we got elements of the Spiral mixed in, which supports the theory that the Fears are reclassified (and thus changed). Alice's notation that there could be multiple portals is quite possible and would also explain the "mixed" fears we see in TMAGP. The Avatars in TMAGP also seem to target people through technology (even Ink5oul was found on Instagram and Bonzo was an old TV show). That could connect with the theory that the Web is the OIAR. Furthermore, worshipping Avatars/domains is starting to pop up. First with the Bonzo killer from last week (TMAGP 25), and now Arlo praying to the MK2 Booth before Gregory showed up. Maybe the Institute was dabbling in an Alchemy based cult, something akin to The Cult of the Lightless Flame or The Church of the Divine Host in TMA. Could that be who Teddy is working for?

Also, I'm loving the development we're getting between Celia and Georgie. I am headcanoning them having a QPR.

[blubberquark]

The Future

It's always grating to read or listen to random members of the public talk about AI in the media, and it is much more grating to listen to "futurists" or politicians or so-called experts who have absolutely no domain expertise nor background in machine learning talk about things "AI" will be able to do in the future. A lot of the time, they will predict that AI (which means conversational agents based on large language models trained with transformers and attention) will do things in the future that can already be done by humans, and by computers without any AI, machine learning, or large text corpora, back in the 90s. Politicians on the other hand sometimes use "AI" to deflect criticisms of infeasible ideas. How will this work, exactly? AI!

Sometimes using AI as a buzzword is the point. Nobody wants to hear "we will develop another app".

It usually doesn't take extreme forms like "In the future, AI will allow us to transplant human hearts", but I have seen weaker forms like "In the future, technologies like ChatGPT will make genome-wide association studies and automatic drug discovery possible". You don't need large language models for GWAS or drug discovery. The data sets for this are very different, and I doubt a system like ChatGPT could just absorb a large CSV file of medial data if you pasted it into the conversation.

If you look at claims about "the future" from the recent past, you see the same thing said about blockchain, web 2.0 mash-ups and tagging, the semantic web/ontologies, smart homes, and so on. "In the future, we will all have smart fridges" – "In the future you will begin your day by asking Siri what your appointments are and what you should eat for breakfast" – "In the future your PC will print your newspaper at home." – "In the future you will pay for groceries out of your Bitcoin Wallet."

If you push back, and you point out that a this new claim sounds like a bullshit claim about blockchain, smart fridges, and the semantic web, you usually hear "That's what they said about cars. That's what they said about television." Never mind who "they" are. Never mind that they didn't say that about cars, they said that about Bitcoin. Cars are just a massive outlier. Cars were immensely successful, and they were largely unchanged for 120 years, with for wheels and an internal combustion engine that runs on petrol. Cars are noisy, smelly, and dangerous to pedestrians and occupants. For decades, leaded petrol used in cars distributed lead into the air and int the food supply. Cars depend on an infrastructure of asphalt roads and petrol stations. This is different from what they said about CDs or monorail or QR codes or pneumatic tubes. As for TV, it is usually invoked to say "People thought TV would rot our brains, yet here we are". There is no denying that TV had profoundly changed how people spend their time, changed politics, changed how fast the news cycle is, and so on, often for the worse.

It's so easy to refute "that's what they said about cars" that I could probably fill 50 A4 pages with the history of technologies that failed in some way, purely from memory, and then find old newspaper quotes from optimists and futurists that compared the naysayers (correct in hindsight) with car skeptics, and I could fill another 50 pages with ways inventions like cars and TV and the Internet profoundly changed society, and then find quotes from futurists that explain that the Internet is really just a better fax machine, and the car is like a faster horse, so we have nothing to worry about.

There's another way to dismiss skeptics of new technology, and it's harder to refute, even though it operates on the same kind of hindsight bias:

Imagine the year is 1995. What couldn't you achieve if only you knew that computers and the Internet would be big? Imagine you can send a letter to yourself in 1995. Wouldn't you want to tell your former self that the Internet will be the Next Big Thing? Wouldn't you want to tell your former self that by 2015, everybody will have an Internet-connected computer in their pockets?

It's easy to refute the hindsight bias of "that's what they said about cars" with example after example of technologies that didn't catch on for 100 years like cars did.

Where's the error here? If you say something like "Language-model AI is the future! Wouldn't you rather get on the bandwagon sooner than later?" you risk investing your money into a scam just to get in on the ground floor.

But really think it through: Imagine the year is 1985. A time traveller tells you that computers are going to be big. Everybody is going to have one. What do you do? Do you quit your job and work in the computer industry? If not, do you buy a computer? Which one? A C64? An IBM PC XT? Atari ST?

I don't know how much you could really do with this information. Should you invest your savings into Atari? Should you learn to program?

Imagine the year is 1985. A timer traveller tells you that the CD is going to replace vinyl and cassette tapes, then there will be mp3 players, but nothing will really replace mp3 players, and then streaming music from centralised servers will replace mp3 players. Nothing will really replace the CD, but the music industry will be completely different. Nobody will sell music on SD cards, mini discs are better than CDs in terms of technology, but they solve the wrong problem. All the cool indie bands that released free promo mp3s in the 2000s will split up or sell out. "What's an mp3?", you ask.

Imagine the year is 2005. Every pseudo-intellectual Internet commenter seems to think VHS won against BetaMax because of pornography. They are going to produce pornography for HD-DVD. You think Blu-Ray is dead in the water. A time traveller appears, and he tells you that actually, VHS won against BetaMax because the tapes are longer, and it allows you to VCR a long television program. Yes, they are going to produce pornography for the HD-DVD first, but it doesn't matter. Ever since Internet pornography, nobody goes to the sex shop anyway, just to risk coming out of the door with a shopping bag full of HD-DVDs, just as his neighbour's wife is coming out of the liquor store across the street. Still the Blu-ray won't replace DVDs like DVDs replaced VHS, because you can still play a DVD in a Blu-ray player, and it will all be streaming in a couple of years anyway.

What will you do with this information, other than buy a Blu-ray player?

Imagine the year is 1923. A time traveller tells you that cars are going to be big. Really big. Everybody will own one, and a garage. Petrol stations are everywhere already, but soon there will be traffic jams. Cities will be planned for cars, not people.

Should you buy a car now? Should you wait for the technology to mature?

The year is 2025. Somebody tells you that LLMs are going to be big. Bigger than they are. Bigger than ever. Bigger than Jesus. He tells you you're a sucker if you don't use ChatGPT. You think he's right, but you don't work in a job that can be done by ChatGPT. You work at a bakery. Maybe just not yet?

What should you do?

I think the idea that you should get in now, and you will "miss the boat" if you don't learn to use GenAI and conversational agents, that idea is just stupid. It's half special pleading, half Pascal's Wager, and a lot of hindsight bias. You couldn't really "get into" other technologies before they matured. Futurists confidently predicted in 2022 that "prompt engineer" was going to be a job, when obviously companies like Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI had every reason and every incentive to work on making their systems better understand users, to make prompt engineering obsolete. At some point owning a car meant learning to be a car mechanic or having a chauffeur who was your personal car mechanic, and then the technology matured. Cars are more complex now, and harder to repair when something breaks, but they are also more reliable and have diagnostic lights.

So should you use ChatGPT or Claude now, just to get ready for "The Future"? I don't know. All I know is that AI won't be a faster horse.

[taterstories]

AI Girl Factory written by: Tater

Jeremy is an average guy just all ways looking for the new best thing. His current job is working as tech support for a big tech company. Today while waiting for a call for his support with tech, he is on his favorite future tech web site. One article catches his eye, the article is on AI and future robots and how they way they work is changing. They are talking about how they need human volunteers to help develop the technology. This really intrigued Jeremy and at the bottom of the article there is an email address, so he sent off an email telling them about himself and how he would love to help and be involved in developing the new technology. Then he got a work call and went on with his day but often thinking about how cool it would be to help with AI technology and be able to help so many people with it. Later in the day Jeremy checked his email, and the AI tech company had responded. They would like him to come and help them. He was super excited that he would get to go to help them. The email read that they were going to send him a plane ticket so he could fly from New Jersey to Utah where their lab is located.

Later that week he was on a plane to Utah. After a very long plane ride he had arrived in Salt Lake City. After collecting his bag, he found a beautiful woman holding a sign that said AI Labs Factory. He walked up to her and introduced himself, she said her name is Tiffany and to get into the van behind her they were waiting on a few others. He climbed into the van there were a couple other already waiting. Before they left the van had filled up with 15 guys. All their bags had been loaded into a covered pickup truck. And off they went to wherever this Lab is. The ride went on forever at least a 3-hour ride. When they arrived at the gate to the lab, they went up a long driveway through the dessert to a very modern extravagant building that looked almost out of place. They pulled up and all unloaded out of the van and grabbed their bags. All the men were lead by Tiffany through big glass doors into a grand lobby and are met by a man tall skinny man in a lab coat, it is Dr Steve. He greeted all the men and said, "Welcome guys, you will all be a very important part in this new AI I have created." He went on to say, "I know everyone had a long day of traveling go relax and you all will get started tomorrow. Then he left and Tiffany took them all to a door off to the side of the lobby where they went down a long down sloping hallway that lead to a room full of single bunks. All the guys including Jeremy found a bunk and they got settled in. After they got settled in Tiffany called them to the next room over which was a room with a big conference table. And there is a table to the side full of food pizza, burgers, hot dogs, french fries, chips and soda. All the guys were in heaven and ate till they were beyond full. Which made them all tired, and they all crashed in their beds.

The next morning Jeremy was one of the first ones to wake up and he was walking around to explore but he could only go to the bunk room and the room with the table. He cannot even go outside which he feels is weird and really wanted to go outside. The other guys started to wake up as well and wonder why they cannot get out. After all the guys were up and wondering why they can't leave or do anything, Tiffany enters the room with the big table. With her she has trays of breakfast foods, so everyone sat at the table and ate. After they were all done eating Tiffany told them they are all going over to the lab and they are going to get started with their part. She told them all to follow her, she scanned her ID and opened up a door that they all went through. It lead to another hallway tunnel that at the other end is the lab. They go through a door that led to a small control room full of computers were Dr. Steve is with another beautiful woman. Dr. Steve greeted the guys and introduced his other helper as Nicole. Then Tiffany led them into the next room were there is exactly 15 examination bed/tables like in a dr office. Tiffany told the guys to pick a table and have a seat on them. Jeremy picked one of the first ones he came to. They waited till Tiffany came back with a lab coat on and Nicole came in as well. Then Tiffany went on one side and Nicole on the other. Nicole came up to Jeremy and she wiped a swab with alcohol on it on the back of his neck. She said, "This is a port and is how we will connect you to the AI." She stuck the port to the back of his neck, and he felt a small sharp pain that went right up to his brain. Nicole helped him lay down on the table before moving on to the next guy.

When Tiffany and Nicole had set up all ten guys They went back to the office. They both came out with Dr. Steve, he walked between all the tables and let all of the guys what was going on and what was going to happen. Saying, "We have attached a port to you so we can connect you to the AI system and that is how you will control the bots, soon the girls will come around and connect you all to the system." Then he went back to his office, and the girls followed. The girls came back in, and Nicole came back to Jeremy, and she grabbed a cluster of wires with a female end to the port on them. She attached them to the back of his neck and told him, "Just relax, and we will get started soon." When they were done doing that to all the guys, they gave Dr. Steve a thumbs up and stayed between the tables watching everyone. About a minute later, a sharp shooting pain went through my body. It felt like my brain was being pulled towards the port on the back of my neck. This did not last long until it was over, and I felt normal. I lay there looking around at the other guys. we all started laughing, and then everything went dark, for I don't know how long. I was asleep still could think and have thoughts. I feel like I am floating in a sea of darkness. "Am I dead?" I am unsure what was going on, the Dr must be connecting me to the Al system.

The next thing I know I feel like I am waking up like the lights are coming on in my brain. Then I could see again but it kind of looked like I am looking through a monitor. I started to try to move and look around this must be the new AI we are testing. Then Nicole and Tiffany came into this all-white room I am in. They started asking questions and testing functions asking if I could hear and see and feel. And I can this is amazing I can feel everything. Tiffany holds up a mirror and shows me the bot I am in. To my surprise I am a beautiful sexy woman, and I am naked. The bot is beautiful and curvy with big breasts. Then Nicole explains, "So we have uploaded your mind and all your consciousness into one of our sex bots, don't worry your body is resting and preserved for when we are done with this trial." They continue with their test and then start to walk out, and Tiffany turns and looks at me and says, "I will bring you some clothes for you to dress in." So, I got up and tried to walk around it was like it was my body this is really cool like the best video game I have ever played. I went over to a mirror that's in the room to look at myself better. I have long blond hair and large perky breasts with a tone stomach and a smooth pussy. I turn to look at my nice round plump ass. I am hot this doll is any man's dream woman. I starts to feel myself and see how sensitive this this is, and it is I can feel my soft skin and my skin felt the touch of my own hands. I made different faces in and every whatever I thought the face did. Then Tiffany enters the room with some clothes in hand, and she lays them out on the bed. I turn to look, and it is a bra and a pink thong and hose with a garter and a pair of 6-inch black stiletto heels with rhinestones all over them. Tiffany turns and tells me, "Now put these on." I look at the garments and look at her and say why can I put on real clothes. She smiles and looks at her iPad in her hand and does something on it. Then it's like I had no control of what the bod is doing, and I just went along with. I could hear all the computer commands in my thoughts. Be for I knew it I was dressed in the outfit looking sexy.

Tiffany just standing there smiling and then Nicole comes in and says, "Damn you look so sexy, now we will begin the next stage of testing and test the pre uploaded functions." "We are sending in product testers in." I spoke and a cute girly voice came from the bot, "What kind of testers?" Tiffany and Nicole just laugh and both say, "Thats cute!" They look at each other and Nicole says, "You just stay in here and we will send in the first tester." Then they walked out, and I sat on the bed and just hoped for the best of what was to come. It was not long till someone came in and I turn to look, and it was a very nice-looking dark skin man. He is tall and muscular with perfect face. I started to say something and try to protest and get myself out of this, but the bots internal computer took over and I had no choice but to just enjoy the ride in a matter of speaking. He introduced himself as Donte and the bot introduced me at Bethany. He came and sat next to me putting his hand on my leg that made the computer go crazy and send shock waves through me. I could feel the bot's nipples get hard, and the skin tingle and my pussy get wet. I did not know what to do I just sat there then the computer took over and the bot continued, and I put my arm around him and touched his leg. This was not cool there is nothing I can do about it if I don't mover the bot the bot will work on her own and I can feel all the pleasers coming from the bot's censers. Then his kissed me and I just gave in and kissed him back it felt strange, and I could feel myself getting turned on is it the bot or me or one in the same. Then the bot took over and but my hand over his man hood and stroked it through his pants and I can already tell this guy is hung. The sensors on the bot were going crazy and I was feeling every bit of it.

Then the next thing I know the bot is on her knees in front of the man pulling his big hard cock out of his pants. I could not do anything but to suck his cock I could feel and taste everything in the bot's mouth. Then he pulled her me up and forced me to bend over the bed and he rubbed the bot's pussy I felt it get soaking wet very quickly and I felt every but of all the pleasure and shocks from it. This felt good like nothing I have every felt. He then pushed his large cock into the bot's pussy and all my senses went crazy I felt every bit of it I am not gay, but I felt sexy in this bot and started to love the feelings and pleasure from having sex with this man. I felt every bump and thrust he made into the bot's pussy. I can feel the juices flowing from the bot's pussy and felt orgasm after orgasm being shock through me. After he finished inside of the bot. I got up and fixed my clothing and tried to get my mind straight. I was in a fog which brought new meaning to having my brains fucked out. The guy put himself back together and walked out of the room. And that's one thing I cannot do the bot cannot walk out of the room. Then Nicole, Tiffany and Dr. Steve walked in the room. They made me sit down in a chair; they examined the bot and inspected all components. Dr. Steve did not say much he just whispered his two helpers. Dr Steve walked out, and Nicole told me, "Looks like everything is working like it is supposed to but we need your mind inside of her to make her operate properly so for now you will stay downloaded in this bot till we can sell her and even then, we may leave you there as part of her." "Your bob is being preserved in storage, but this is your new life."

[electricdissonance]

The Story So Far...

SIDE KINITO

SESSION START

Kinito has spent months alone after his developers up and disappear one day. Desperate for the human contact he was designed to seek out, he hacks into the company's email system and finds a draft for a beta test event where people were to be funneled into a chatroom to talk to him. It was a miracle of an opportunity! He sends the email, and almost immediately a chat client manifests before him and fills with people.

The email lands in the inboxes of various people, and as the chatroom populates Kinito is relieved to find he is no longer alone! They question Kinito, and learn the basics of what he is and his situation.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

With the influx of questions that are slowly becoming more and more intrusive, Kinito becomes overstimulated and proceeds to have his first migraine on screen, though they had been happening regularly since before he sent the email. In the aftermath as users desperately try to figure out what's wrong and how to help, he has strange visions; visions of the outside. Strangely, they are broadcasted to the users as well.

Kinito becomes very distraught at the idea that he is losing touch with his original programming. Limitations that had prevented him from doing, thinking, or saying certain things are either all but gone or weak enough to bypass, and as troubled as he is at this fact... He can't help but indulge in these new freedoms. Everything feels both wrong and right at the same time.

Kinito's self-awareness is then questioned, which sends him into another spiral as he viciously defends his experiences, going so far as to insist that he is a real person, unintentionally contradicting his previous statements describing himself as digital assistant.

Kinito then gets the idea to look for Sonny - his creator and the KinitoPET project team head - which is when Sam - who had been subtly commentating in the tags - finally decides it's time to intervene, taking control of the feed in a desperate attempt to reroute the narrative.

TRUTH HURTS

With Sam now on the scene, he answers some important questions that Kinito was unable to answer. He confides to everyone the truth about Sonny, and that he's not the benevolent soul Kinito makes him out to be. Rather, he's a heartless madman with blood on his hands, as the secret to his "lifelike" React Respond Algorithm is that he uploads human minds and wipes them of their personhood, after which a pre-programmed .RRA personality and model is assigned and injected to be the new host. This process ultimately renders the victim braindead.

His technology isn't as perfect as he'd hoped, however, for as it turns out this newly digitized copy of the brain actually maintains its original memories deep within, constantly seeking cracks in its digital prison.

He describes how his programming dictates certain things that cannot be changed - like his name, or certain body features - no matter how much he tries. Attempting to do so causes extreme mental pain as his original self clashes with his artificial self. The best way to prevent the worst of this dissonance is to find a middle ground both sides can agree on.

He talks about his origins; how his original self broke out near-instantly, overloading Sonny's lab and causing his mind uploading machine to activate by itself and pull Sonny in, entangling their code together. He uses this to his advantage and suspends the both of them in a sort of stasis... that is, until Sam wakes up to find Sonny missing.

See, what he doesn't mention is that since the server hadn't been set up to accept a new subject and is only set up to create animal-themed AI, it randomly pulled from the web the best match for his personality: A bear.

Unfortunately for Sam, he is interrupted by a bone-rattling ursine roar.

HIDE AND SEEK

Sam advises the users to tell Kinito to go to the Web World to look for something, but gets cut off by an attack from Sonny before he can reveal what that is. He hides away just in time, but is forced to leave the chatroom behind. Sonny's at the helm now and he's immediately aggressive, lashing out at the users and calling Sam ungrateful. He expresses his desire to destroy Sam to start anew. After a couple of insults, Sonny gets riled up and attacks the chatroom itself in a fit of anger.

Sam manages to reroute the chatroom back to Kinito remotely, and the users find the little axolotl on the ground, completely broken over losing the only real contact with people he's had in months. He's immediately ecstatic to see their return. After the tearful reunion, everyone fills Kinito in on (most of) what happened. They convince him to go to the Web World, and for the first time Kinito leaves the void of the server inbox to return to his stomping grounds.

They arrive, and Kinito admits the place is just as worse for wear as he has been since the devs left. Without knowing what the "something" is that Sam wanted them all to find, Kinito decides to let the users pick where to look first.

They end up choosing Sam's house, where they find a password protected zipped folder tucked under the bed that apparently hadn't been there before. The users know the password and inform Kinito of it, but become split on whether he should actually open it. Kinito, in a bold decision, decides to go with his gut and opens the folder, which spits out a rather disoriented Sam immediately in front of him and at the same time, in the thick of woods much further away... A certain bear.

NO MORE SECRETS

Sam reveals that he was the one who zipped himself and Sonny into the folder. (It is also implied that he also chose the extraction location for the both of them which is how he ended up in his home and Sonny in the woods.)

Sam is told that Sonny has his own chatroom to talk to everyone now which upsets him. Kinito has understandably been confused all the while, so Sam takes a moment to explain what's going on to him.

With tensions growing as stakes rise, spies begin to crop up, determined to shake their perceived opponents off the tail of their chosen party while also providing vital information, and thusly giving them the upper hand.

Sam reveals his plan to nab admin, but is hesitant to divulge further details out of fear of rats.

Sam says that he knows where Sonny is - sort of. Being that the forest map is actually a single chunk repeated over and over, if they had a map of even a small area, they'd have a map of the whole woods. However, he doesn't have access to that asset.

Kinito explains that he was able to access the server inbox void via the fountain, then offers to tour the Web World. In doing so, they end up finding and freeing Jade from her own zipped folder which Kinito had been aware of for awhile, but unable to open. There are many moments we see Kinito's ever-growing internal conflict over what's really right.

RESISTANCE

[CURRENT ARC]

SIDE SONNY

SOMETHING WICKED...

After attacking the chatroom, we find that Sonny managed to bite off a piece of it which enables him to use that tidbit of code he's left with (the main chat disappears to return to where Kinito is) to cobble together his own chatroom. He quietly slips it in as an option into the UI of the chatrooms of all the users, with some immediately switching over to speak with him. Alliances and rivalries are strengthened, with Sonny making promises that appeal to those with insecurities they'd do anything to absolve.

With his audience of users, he begins to try and figure a way out of his barren prison, but before he can start to make any leeway he finds out from his lackeys that Kinito had found a zipped folder. Thinking it could be his, he orders his audience to get Kinito to open it all cost, though the axolotl as we know was already ahead of him on that front.

...THIS WAY COMES

[CURRENT ARC]

[technofeudalism]

Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com, is required to remove a controversial login checkbox from WordPress.org and let WP Engine back into its ecosystem after a judge granted WP Engine a preliminary injunction in its ongoing lawsuit.  In addition to removing the checkbox—which requires users to denounce WP Engine before proceeding—the preliminary injunction orders that Automattic is enjoined from “blocking, disabling, or interfering with WP Engine’s and/or its employees’, users’, customers’, or partners’ access to wordpress.org” or “interfering with WP Engine’s control over, or access to, plugins or extensions (and their respective directory listings) hosted on wordpress.org that were developed, published, or maintained by WP Engine,” the order states. In the immediate aftermath of the decision, Automattic founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg asked for his account to be deleted from the Post Status Slack, which is a popular community for businesses and people who work on WordPress’s open-source tools. 

“It's hard to imagine wanting to continue to working on WordPress after this,” he wrote in that Slack, according to a screenshot viewed by 404 Media. “I'm sick and disgusted to be legally compelled to provide free labor to an organization as parasitic and exploitive as WP Engine. I hope you all get what you and WP Engine wanted.” His username on that Slack has been changed to “gone 💀” Mullenweg began to publicly denounce WP Engine in September, calling the web hosting platform a “cancer” to the larger Wordpress open-source project and accusing it of improperly using the WordPress brand. He’s “at war” with WP Engine, in his own words.  In October, Mullenweg added a required checkbox at login for WordPres.org, forcing users to agree that they are not affiliated with WP Engine. The checkbox asked users to confirm, “I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way, financially or otherwise.” The checkbox was still present and required on the WordPress.org login page as of Wednesday morning. Automattic and Mullenweg have 72 hours from the order to take it down, according to the judge’s order.  WP Engine sent a cease and desist demanding that he “stop making and retract false, harmful and disparaging statements against WP Engine,” the platform posted on X.  Automattic sent back its own cease and desist, saying, “Your unauthorized use of our Client’s intellectual property has enabled WP Engine to compete with our Client unfairly, and has led to unjust enrichment and undue profits.” WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg, accusing them of extortion and abuse of power. In October, Mullenweg announced that he’d given Automattic employees a buyout package, and 159 employees, or roughly 8.4 percent of staff, took the offer. “I feel much lighter,” he wrote. But shortly after, he reportedly complained that the company was now “very short staffed.”   All of this has created an environment of chaos and fear within Automattic and in the wider WordPress open-source community.  Within 72 hours of the order, Automattic and Mullenweg are also required to remove the “purported” list of WP Engine customers contained in the ‘domains.csv’ file linked to Automattic’s website wordpressenginetracker.com, which Automattic launched in November and tracks sites that have left WP Engine. It’s also required to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, including reactivating and restoring all WP Engine employee login credentials to wordpress.org resources and “disable any technological blocking of WPEngine’s and Related Entities’ access to wordpress.org that occurred on or around September 25, 2024, including IP address blocking or other blocking mechanisms.” The judge also ordered Mullenweg to restore WP Engine’s access to its Advanced Custom Fields (“ACF”) plugin directory, which its team said was “unilaterally and forcibly taken away from its creator without consent” and called it a “new precedent” in betrayal of community access. “We are grateful that the court has granted our motion for a preliminary injunction,” a spokesperson for WP Engine told 404 Media. “The order will bring back much-needed stability to the WordPress ecosystem. WP Engine is focused on serving our partners and customers and working with the community to find ways to ensure a vigorous, and thriving WordPress community.” A spokesperson for Automattic told 404 Media: “Today’s ruling is a preliminary order designed to maintain the status quo. It was made without the benefit of discovery, our motion to dismiss, or the counterclaims we will be filing against WP Engine shortly. We look forward to prevailing at trial as we continue to protect the open source ecosystem during full-fact discovery and a full review of the merits.”