bluebird1348 - Tumblr blog

[bluebird1348]

In the future, children will think our ways are strange. "Why do old people always grow so much milkweed in their gardens?" they'll say. "Why do old people always write down when the first bees and butterflies show up? Why do old people hate lawn grass so much? Why do old people like to sit outside and watch bees?"

We will try to explain to them that when we were young, most people's yards were almost entirely short grass with barely any flowers at all, and it was so commonplace to spray poisons to kill insects and weeds that it was feared monarch butterflies and American bumblebees would soon go extinct. We will show them pictures of sidewalks, shops, and houses surrounded by empty grass without any flowers or vegetables and they will stare at them like we stared at pictures of grimy children working in coal mines

[bluebird1348]

Am I wet? Am I on my period? Did I pee my pants?- next on wtf is going on down there.

[bluebird1348]

Okay. It's time for an AI rant.

My nephew is 13 years old. Whenever he writes a paper for school, I check it over and fix all of his mistakes for him. He said to me, "Maybe I'll proofread your paper for you in exchange," meaning one of the scholarly articles I write for work. I said, "Cool," and gave him the file. And he said, "Well, this is full of errors! See, you always say you have a lot to correct on my stuff, and look at all the stuff you got wrong!" And I said, surprised, "What? Where?" Because I'm sure there are typos in the draft I sent him, but not, like, that many.

And then he pointed to the screen and said, "Look at all the blue and red lines you have."

And I said, "Yeah, but those are wrong. Like, those are blue and red lines I'm ignoring because the computer is wrong." And then I paused and added, "You know you can't proofread a paper by just looking at the red and blue lines, right?" And he gave me the blankest look, because that clearly is EXACTLY what he thinks. And it became even clearer suddenly why, whenever I correct something on his paper, his immediate reaction is, "It didn't have a blue or red line."

There's a very good reason for that: THAT'S BECAUSE THE COMPUTER ISN'T SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT IT WAS WRONG.

I am so tired of being sold the idea that computers are better than humans and so we should just outsource everything to them, which is clearly the lesson my nephew is absorbing in U.S. middle school. COMPUTERS ARE NOT BETTER THAN HUMANS. Like, maybe they are better at humans at crawling through rubble to find people trapped inside. They are also better at preserving things in a searchable format. Things like that. Very limited circumstances.

I don't want to sound alarmist but everything I hear about people using generative AI freaks me out. It's not just that I'm freaked out by people being like, "I use it to write novels!" (Although I don't see how they do, I have tried to have it write fiction for me and the output was truly terrible.) But I recognize my bias around creative writing and so no one needs to credit my views on artificial writing. But! Other things are alarming, too! "I use it to brainstorm x, y, or z." But...why? Why not just...use your own brain...to...brain...storm? The computer doesn't even have a brain to brainstorm with! And you might be like, "But it comes up with things that my brain would never think of!" So would other people! You could also brainstorm with other people! Or even through Google to see what other people have thought before you (not AI). Please don't belittle the wonder of thinking.

I just feel like the marketing around generative AI boils down to "Wouldn't it be easier not to use your own brain to think about things?" Everyone. No. It would not be. Please just trust me on this. I'm not just an old person who is out of touch with technology or something. I promise. USE YOUR BRAINS. IT WILL BE OKAY.

[bluebird1348]

shout out to all the bitches NOT having gay sex this pride month

[bluebird1348]

Hey since TERFs buried the original, higher quality recording, here’s the only surviving recording of trans activist Sylvia Rivera’s infamous “Y'all Better Quiet Down” speech, along with full transcription, now free and open on Archive.org. The transphobic fucks can try their best to scrub us from history, but we’re not going anywhere.

[bluebird1348]

I am literally begging you to have limits. You can be depraved and kinky and all that, but please let yourself have limits, for your own wellbeing and health. There is not a single person alive that is okay with everything that could possibly be thrown at them. I say this especially for younger people, like freshly 18 year olds. Yes, you're an adult, you are allowed to engage in kink, but that doesn't mean that you won't be taken advantage of because of your inexperience. There are predatory people out here who jump on young people who don't know any better and don't know how to stand up for their boundaries. Please take care of yourself

[bluebird1348]

Thinking about those windows movie maker lyric videos from the late 00's/early 10's...truly that era's cornerstone of society

[bluebird1348]

Sun Tzu is so fucking funny to me because for his time he was legitimately a brilliant tactician but a bunch of his insight is shit like "if you think you might lose, avoid doing that", "being outnumbered is bad generally", and "consider lying."

[bluebird1348]

Otia, ta guapens

[bluebird1348]

For those not in the know, this is one of the Amanita mushrooms referred to as a Destroying Angel. Never, ever, ever, ever forage with an app. Especially for mushrooms.

[bluebird1348]

[bluebird1348]

make a girl smile today.

give her a sword.

[bluebird1348]

purchased a sans undertale plush for my classroom and i've been torturing my students by pretending i don't know who he is

[bluebird1348]

Coelacanths are so cool, I wish they were rea- wait a minute

[bluebird1348]

everyone knows that the last person you should ask about the experiences of trans women is a trans woman. they're all biased & can't be trusted

[bluebird1348]

Okay not going to lie it is VERY funny that everyone said "B*tch Hartman doesn't deserve Danny Phantom" so hard that it's basically wish fulfillment that DC would adopt him instead. Icon. Hartman who? Never heard of him. Meanwhile, DC, whomst we also hate, roll up. We can do better. Together. *clasps hands with the personified entity of Detective Comics*

[bluebird1348]