…but not just for the reasons that Casey Neistat shares in this video.
Absolutely, I agree that AI is going to kill creative industries. And that’s both scary and sad. Progress is moving so quickly these days that we’re struggling to keep up with it and even worse, we’re struggling to keep up with what its effects might be.
But this particular app is bad news, and not just because of the slop that is replacing decent video-making (beautifully explained by Casey, by the way). Not just because of the bullying aspect that he touches on in the video. Not just because it’s just going to fill up our timelines with yet heaps more utter shite, hiding all the (ever-decreasing) decent stuff.
I’m more concerned by just how good this is at what it does. This is going to fool a lot of people and it will absolutely be used nefariously to fool a lot of people. Whether that’s in politics, in phishing scams or in personal relationships, giving the average voter* access to this sort of technology will not end well.
Tipping point stuff.
*“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” – Winston Churchill
MOBA – The Museum Of Bad Art. It’s in Boston. This one, not this one.
The tagline is “Art too bad to be ignored”, and there’s certainly some very bad art on offer there, but surely beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, and this is all subjective?
I think that we could unanimously agree that a lot of it is bad, but let’s just look at the way the museum (website) is put together, and you can see that they want to celebrate just how rubbish stuff is in a humorous was, rather than try to crucify the artists.
The pieces in the MOBA collection range from the work of talented artists that have gone awry to works of exuberant, although crude, execution by artists barely in control of the brush. What they all have in common is a special quality that sets them apart in one way or another from the merely incompetent.
And with collections including “Poor traits”, “Oozing my religion” and “Unlikely landscapes” – there’s plenty to enjoy endure.
I have zero artistic talent. That ability passed over my generation without troubling me at all. But I think that I’m aware of my lack of expertise, and so I choose not to push myself in that direction.
Not so these “artists”. But there are exceptions. This is my favourite painting:
Not because of the rather odd Bassett Hound, but also, the artist’s own comment on his work:
In the note accompanying his donation, Mr. Roots wrote, “…I was happy with the way the barn turned out. It was when I started animals and people that [I realized] I was having problems with proportions…”
The blurb provided by the Museum for each image is also well worth a look.
Our resident Cape Skink (Trachylepis capensis), unbelievelably named “Mr Skinky Skink” by someone that really should know better, is getting big. That’s who.
Resident in the braai wood pile under the braai, he’s literally like a wild pet. And we’ll never use all the braai wood in the braai wood pile, because that would mean that he didn’t have a home.
We’re hoping that if he keeps growing at the current rate, that one day he’ll be a fire-breathing dragon, which would not only be entertaining, but would also save a fortune in matches for winter fires and summer braais.
You need talent, genes, determination, skill, power, dedication, a bit of luck along the way, perseverance and a whole lot more to achieve great things in professional sport.
But in sprinting, surely the basics are pretty straightforward? And here, I mean the real basics.
How have Noah Lyles and his fellow competitors risen to the top of this sport when they are struggling with even the most simple of sprinting concepts?
Is this a failure in overall athletics organisation, something that their coaches have overlooked or just plain stupidity on their behalf? Because I don’t know much about sprinting, but what I do know is that they all line up on the starting blocks – facing in one direction – a gun goes off and they run as fast as they can to the finish line.
It’s absolutely straight.
And even in the 200m, where you have to go around a bit of a bend, there are lines to help you.
Honestly, if he’s right and actually nobody does know which direction to go in, either they’ve been extremely lucky that athletes haven’t veered into the crowd or onto the javelin landing zone, or someone has been making sure that they quietly tell the runners which direction to go in just before the start, and that’s been enough.
But sooner or later, the luck will run out or the person won’t be there to tell them, and chaos will ensure.
I look forward to that day. It will be messy, but it should be fun to watch.
“The rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not,” exclaimed Pastor Joshua Mhlakela. “God took me to see the future… and there in heaven, in the throne room, I see Jesus sitting… and I could hear him very loud and clear saying, ‘I am coming soon.’”
It sounds like maybe Mhlakela got there just after Mrs God had shouted that dinner was ready or something, I don’t know.
But much like all the other times that the world has been ending for religious (rather than thermonuclear war) reasons, this also won’t happen and there will be some quick goalpost moving, some pathetic explanation trotted out for the pathetically gullible, and we’ll all move on again – until next time.
Just remember to get your loyalty card stamped.
Of course, not only has organised religion been deeply involved in this sort of nonsense for many years, this time, it’s also all been fuelled and amplified by that highest of intellectual forums: TikTok.
Obviously, if it does happen (which it clearly won’t), I’m going to look a bit silly, but that’s a chance that I am willing to take. And if you look at what the Bible says will precede the big day (and you’re willing to tweak the words a bit and put a bit of spin on it), then you can absolutely see why some people genuinely think that Pastor Mhlakela might have got it spot on. War, famine, earthquakes (at a stretch) and widespread abandonment of the church.
And actually, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. We humans do seem to be insistent on destroying the planet (and each other) as best we can. You can see why the Big Guy Upstairs might choose now to pull the plug.
But honestly, if all the insufferable Christians get beamed up, maybe the world would be a better place.
And if we can stretch it out to Wednesday, then I can paraphrase Matthew 24:40-42:
“Two men will be braai’ing together in the garden; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be sorting the salads inside; one will be taken, the other left. So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what time your Lord is coming, and whether He’s going to arrive late with a whole frozen spatchcocked chicken.”
The worst braai guest.
See you tomorrow. And see you Wednesday, too. Really, I will.
