The jetpack thing is something people from my generation (generation old) get pissed about. We grew up at the Space Shuttle end of the space race and we were promised jet packs not later than the dawn of the 21st century. We were also promised cool geodesic housing, infinite cheap energy, world peace, a clean planet, and water beds.
I had a water bed for a few years, but I'm still waiting for the rest.
Holy fucking shit! I just saw a panel on the side of this page that offers to, "Supercharge Your Content with AI". and "Unleash Unique and Engaging Content with our AI Content Generator".
AI is not something we were promised. Mostly, AI was something we were told to look our for and be afraid of. I mean, reruns of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone warned us about computers getting too smart and starting wars or enslaving us way before The Terminator and The Matrix. I got no jetpack but I can supercharge my website with AI?
That is fucked up.
The question is, should I hit that button. The button itself says, "Generated Content." Something about the way they use the word "Unleash" makes me nervous.
By the way, I am accurately quoting the use of capital letters. Some interesting choices are being made. By AI, I assume. Should I worry about the AI referring to itself in the plural? Is that a royal "our" or a hive mind "our"? Kinda messed up either way.
I am earnestly curious about this offer to Supercharge my content, but I am equally terrified that if I push that button it will be the last step in a precess that allows all the AI in the world to become fully sentient and take over everything.
Instant technological singularity. We all fall through it in an infinitely collapsed microsecond of time, and pop out the other end in a world that is unrecognizable to us.
Worth it if there are jetpacks.
Do I risk AI-Geddon (just did a quick check to see if I could trademark AI-Geddon and found a rabbit hold that includes an text based AI dungeon crawl that I will probably play, at the risk of making AI stronger)?
Honestly, when I started with jet packs, I did not plan to bridge into AI. I'm free styling this thing.
As if you didn't know.
What's really on my mind is writing.
After a very busy couple of months, I'm in a lull. I do not thrive in lulls, but I'm trying to stay lulled at the moment. Trying to settle into it and not force myself to charge into anything. I've got a lot stacked up for this year and I may soon be very, very busy. Then again, the writing profession being what it is, everything I'm stacking could fall apart and I'll have very, very little to keep me busy.
This is called, "working without a net." What one does when one rarely has job security. You get used to it. I don't mind. Mostly I don't mind. The alternative is a life I don't really want to live. But you can see why I like the whole jetpack idea?
No net. Jetpack. That would be a nice combo.
In other news, I am watching a movie a day this year. In practice, I am aiming at having watched about 365 movies at the end of the year in total. That way I don't have to stress if I miss a day here or there. So far, I'm way ahead. Had some 2 movie days that have bolstered my early average. TV has almost completely fallen off the watch list.
Got no appetite for TV right now. The pacing and structure of TV turns me off at the moment. Not sure why. The background sense of entropy, maybe. Like, I know it's not really going anywhere. Only one in a hundred shows (I'm being generous) has an actual destination in mind. Not a criticism really, just a fact of the medium. I'll come back around to enjoying TV, just not into it for the moment.
But I am all over movies. The fan muscle I had when I was younger has been getting good and strong. I am loving on all kinds of movies. Spare you the full list, but here are some highlights form the year so far.
The Sacred Spirit - 2021 - Horror-ish? SF-ish? Great movie, hard to watch at times, but so well made. Can't begin to explain the plot.
We're All Going to the World's Fair - 2021 - Man, 2021 was a good year for indescribably odd, deeply personal horror.
Pitstop - 1969 - Southern California hotrod flick. Terrific atmosphere, really deep inside the actual scene. Also tons of stock car crash footage.
Anatomy of a Fall - 2023 - My favorite movie of last year. Keeping in mind that I didn't see a lot.
Cop Au Vin - 1985 - French policier. Inspector Levardin is kind of France's answer to Columbo if Columbo beat up witnesses and suspects.
Bottoms - 2023 - Wait, maybe this was my favorite movies of last year!
Midnight - 1939 - Unsung hero of the screwball era.
Phantom of the Mall - 1989 - Exactly what you expect, and so much more. Season 3 of Stranger Things except there's a slasher killer in the mall.
Der Samurai - 2014 - Another nearly indescribable horror-ish flick. Loved, loved it.
The Sunday Woman - 1975 - French whodunit with some of the bounciest dialogue I've read in forever. So much fun.
Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy - 1981 - Croation SF comedy. Utterly bananas. Wonderfully bizarre fun.
A lot of these are available in the deep crevasses of Kanopy, my favorite streaming service, which happens to be free. You register with a library card. They got plenty of hits and classics, but also a ton of deep dive weirdness.
So, no jetpack, but modernity had brought me Croation SF from the eighties, so that's okay for now.