#Internet of Things & Machine to Machine

[raavenb2619]

I’m not sure when exactly this happened, but I think it’s clear that the aro community really is a community, now.

For the longest time I’ve felt like we were still in stasis, not quite there; a proto-community, yes, but not quite a community. But we have more history now to lean back on, more of each other to talk to and laugh with and cry with and learn from. More people that’ll go forward and make a part of modern aro history. More people that believe us, believe in us, will stand with us if we ask them.

I wouldn’t consider myself an aro elder yet, though each year I’m surprised at how long aromanticism has been a part of my life, how long I’ve been free of doubt or insecurity about my aromanticism, how far we’ve come since I was questioning. Then again, when I was questioning, some of the people I looked up to for guidance were probably close to the age I am now, so I might be there sooner than I think.

And, I’m so so hopeful for all aros, young or old, new or not, because we’ve come so far. Day by day, progress is slow (and yes, it’s unfair, it should be so much faster), but looking back it feels fast. We are our own role models, the people we look up to for guidance. We carve our own path through life, making things up as we go. I used to find that terrifying, because I had no idea what the future would bring. But it’s actually amazing, because I can ignore all these silly “rules” and guidelines about what my life should be, and instead ask, “what do I want my life to be?”

Younger me, you have no idea how awesome your future is gonna be. I’m sorry about the pain and hardship you’ll go through first; it won’t be fair and you shouldn’t have to deal with it. But you’ll make it through, and one day you’ll be me. I can’t wait for you to get here.

#aromantic #aro #aspec #queer #lgbtq #original #text #can't believe i was busy on a day when aromantic got super trending #also on the topic of history: history is super important and we should make sure we're good custodians of it! #make backups of your tumblr blogs/wordpress sites/fanfiction/analytical essays/whatever! #save links into the internet archive/wayback machine! #future aros will thank us for every thing we save from link rot #current aros will thank us for keeping our resources alive and accessible

[uncanny-tranny]

The thing that gets me about history and humanity is that you never know what is immortalized, and the things that will be immortalized are things you would never think.

I saw a person sharing a new tattoo, and it was one of Onfim's drawings. A boy who lived so long ago he is barely a blip now, but his drawings meant so much to people that somebody is now permanently marked in their skin with one of those drawings. Do you ever look at the things you make and just sit there and wonder if this is the thing that future people look at? Do you ever look at your art, your writing, your schoolwork, or anything that is yours and just wonder who will find it, who will fall in love with a piece of your humanity and become overwhelmed with emotion over? It's not unlikely. It's not totally unlikely that somebody will find a piece of you in the distant future and devoid of any other context of who you were will still love you because you were here. You were here, and you are still here, even hundreds or thousands of years later. Treat yourself with the same love that so many have for dear Onfim.

#positivity #gentle reminders #if anybody has ancient children's drawings beside onfim let me know they melt my heart #i have always wanted a tattoo of that kind of thing too and i want ideas #see if archeologists dig me up or whomever else they won't find significant tattoos or other things. they will see i have loss.jpeg on me #and i think that's just as important. these people must know that people are silly and weird and don't make sense and that's IMPORTANT #i'm just. so obsessed with this because it's instantly humanizing #what little child hasn't drawn humans with twelve fingers per hand #or those kids drawings where it's only a torso/head conglomerate with stick legs and hands #i just really lived seeing how their tattoo turned out because i wasn't sure if it would look good in ink and skin #i feel the same way about archiving the internet. i was looking for the written crochet pattern for something #and the person who wrote and created it passed away and their blog has been scrubbed #their blog only exists on the archives. their pattern is only accessible on youtube because somebody made a video tutorial with the pattern #it's an eerie feeling. they've been gone for two years but their blog has been tethered by the wayback machine

[blood-slush]

scraped from an archive of geocitiesghost' blog

#they were banned i guess ? #if any1 knows why lmk im curious #i only went searching for these cuz i had them on my spacehey profile n they got replaces w a thing abt the post violating community guildl #ines #invader zim #gir #cartoons #2000s cartoons #mall goth #old web #old internet #2000s #angelfire #geocities #2000s web #wayback machine #tripod #geocitiesghost.exe #<- tags copy & pasted #icons #webfinds

[elucubrare]

using my time machine exculsively to tell people the one thing everyone remembers them for and see how mad they get

#alert! people lie on the internet. this is not the only thing i use my time machine for.

[crayonmilkz]

doomscrolling well have u ever heard of doomdownloading. doomsaving. doomhoarding virtual data before it disappears poof gone

#i am feeling things #internet archive #wayback machine #fwubby says

[awkward-teabag]

I have to wonder how many people celebrating AI translation also complain about "broken English" and how obvious it is something was Google translated from another language without a fluent English speaker involved to properly clean up the translation/grammar.

Because I bet it's a lot.

I know why execs are all for it—AI is the new buzzword and it lets them cut jobs thus "save" money and not have to worry about pesky labour laws when one employs humans—but everyone else?

There was some outcry when Crunchyroll fired many of their translators in favour of AI translation (with some people to "clean up the AI's work") but I can't help but think that was in part because it was Japanese-to-English and personally affected them. Same when Duolingo fired many of their translators in favour of LLM translation. Meanwhile companies are firing staff when it's English to another language and there's this idea that that's fine or not as big a deal because English is "easy" to translate and/or because people don't think of how it will impact people in non-English countries.

Also it doesn't affect native English speakers so it doesn't get much headway in the news cycle or online anyway because so much of the dominant media is from English-speaking countries and English-speakers dominate social media.

But different languages have different grammar structures that LLMs don't do, and I grew up on "jokes" about people speaking in "broken English" and mocking people who use the wrong word when it was clearly a literal translation but the meaning was obvious long before LLMs were a thing, too. In fact, the specific way a character spoke broken English has been a way to denote their native tongue for decades, usually in a racist way.

Then Google translate came out and "Google-translated English" became an insult for people and criticism of companies because it was clearly wonky to native speakers. Even now, LLMs—which are heavily trained on English compared to other languages—don't have a natural output so native English speakers can clock LLM-generated text if it's longer than a sentence or two.

But, for whatever reason, it's not seen as a problem when it goes the other way because fuck non-English readers or people who want to read in their native tongue I guess.

#and it's not like no people were doing translations so wonky translations were better than nothing #it's actual translators being fired for a subpar replacement #and anyone who keeps their job suddenly being responsible for cleaning up llm output rather than what they trained in #(which can take just as much time or longer than doing the translation by hand from scratch) #(if you want it done right anyway) #hell to this day i hear people complain about written translations of indigenous words and how they 'aren't english enough' #even though they're using the ipa and use a system white english people came up with in the first place #and you can easily look up the proper pronunciation and hear it spoken #but there's such a double-standard where it's expected that other languages cater to english/english speakers #but that grace and accommodation doesn't go the other way #and it's the failing of non-english speakers when an english translation is broken #you see it whenever monolingual english speakers travel to other countries and utterly refuse to learn the language #but if someone doesn't speak in unaccented (to them) english fluently in their home country the person 'isn't trying hard enough' #this is just the new version of that where non-english speakers are supposed to do more work and put up with subpar translations #even as a native english speaker/writer i get a (much) lesser version of this because i write with canadian spelling #and some people get pissed if their internet experience is disrupted by 'ou' instead of 'o' or '-re' instead of '-er' #because dialects and regional phrasing/spelling is a thing #human translators can (or should) be able to account for it but llms are not smart enough to do so #and that's not even getting into slang and how llms don't account for it #or how llms can put slurs into translations because it doesn't do nuance or context and doesn't know the language #if you ever complained about buying something from another country that came with machine-translated instructions #you should be pissed at companies cutting english-to-[language] staff in favour of glorified google translate #because the companies are effectively saying they're fine with non-native speakers getting a wonky/broken version

[fallintosanity]

Windows 11 in a nutshell

how many important functions can we hide from the user in the name of "simplicity"

how many ads can we stuff into the handful of places we deign to allow users to see

#microsoft #windows 11 #sanity complains about things #holy hell i cannot believe what a steaming shitheap of an os this is #you can barely even call it an os #it's an ad delivery system #that (for now) also allows Money-Paying Machines (aka users) to play games (for money) #browse the internet (for money) #work on things (for money) #and otherwise funnel money into M$'s pockets

[ardri-na-bpiteog]

Modern life just has...too much stuff to keep track of. Too many deadlines and logins and accounts and emails and messages on multiple different platforms and constant bombardment of information and I can tell my brain is really struggling to manage it all.

#while smartphones and the expansion of the Internet have been helpful in many ways #a lot of things were just...simpler or slower back in the day and I think we're becoming overwhelmed now #i do sometimes miss the days when someone would just have to leave a message on your answering machine if you weren't home #and you'd listen to it when you got back #and we didn't have a constant bombardment of news #if you wanted to see it you had to buy a newspaper or turn on the TV

[antidotesprout]

Well kids we'll be seeing how Adderall works on the ADHD since atomoxetine didn't cut it for me (chronic heartburn, interrupted sleep).

Get ready for turbo granny hours ig

#sprout chat #sorry i havent been posting #ive been really trying to get the little guys done #its literally been day job straight to my sewing machine every day for weeks #i like how i dont even feel old but at 33 i feel like i qualify for internet grandma status #ive seen things

[sibelin]

i think we should all strive to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations if it leads to a nice social outcomes

#i am an anxiety machine and yet!! #i am so much more happier since i go out regularly (at clubs or bars or museums or record shops) #and yeah! i don't make a lot of friends. but i talk to other people regularly and i think it's nice too! #same on the internet. there's nothing to lose being more bold and messaging people :) #i am a bit sad to see so many people say 'oh well i have anxiety so i can't do that' #i feel that but also.... i would feel so empty alone all the time. it's a survival thing in a way. #talking to myself

[simcardiac-arrested]

honestly don't even remember what happened in 2017 at all, it was a year. that year is no longer.

what the fuck DIDN’T happen in 2017

#fucking cuphead came out. fortnite. little nightmares #FUCKING PUBG #NIGHT IN THE WOODS #LIFE IS STRANGE PREQUEL. WHICH I PLAYED WAY TOO MUCH OF BTW . it was like the second coming of christ to me #hollow knight but i didn’t know about hollow knight back then #ddlc … #slime rancher. and yet another dlc for ark. Back when people still liked playing ark. and by that i mean #nobody fucking liked playing ark. but it’s like stockholm syndrome. you wouldnt get it #FUCKING GANG BEASTS !!!! revolutionary. life changing. and then ? Bendy and the shit machine #anyone remember that ??? anyone remember the wejrdass comic on tumblr that was like bendy and the quest for the ink machine? #I do. I do. #but that’s just games. you know what else came out in 2017? the fucking emoji movie. DO YOU UNDERSTAND #DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT IT WAS LIKE BEING ON THE INTERNET WHEN EMOJI MOVIE CAME OUT?? You dont. You havent seen what i’ve seen #2017 was the year of shape of you. of despacito. of that’s what i like by bruno mars. Do you understand how insufferable it was being on the #internet while those songs were popular. Have you even watched the 2017 youtube rewind #2017 WAS ALMOST THE YEAR LOGAN PAUL HAD HIS FOREST CONTROVERSY. UNFORTUNATELY HE HAD IT ON LIKE JANUARY 2ND OR 3RD OF 2018 #so it’s almost 2017 but not quite #pewdiepie was still popular …. #most important of all? i was a homestuck fan in 2017. I was a fan of many things #much more stuff happened but if i have to think about 2017 for a second longer my brain will fry #cramswering

[tossedmedia]

did someone say old entries from tomskas cakebomb blog?? i highly doubt it! but ive got em

#tomska #asdfmovie #asdf #old internet #internet archive #wayback machine #very normal about these #(ive been holding onto so many random things from cakebomb you have no idea) #but aha!!!! this is the place where i launch those random things at you with no warning

[clefairytea]

Damn I should probably have backups of all my fics huh.

#clefairy squeaks #I mean in theory I do have the docs SOMEWHERE but idk where #Ao3 is fighting for it’s life out there #Also my laptop does periodically make a noise like a washing machine so I should probaaaably look at cloud storage huh #The thing is I don’t like it why does all of it need my shoe size and birth certificate #Just let me be clefairy69420 and ask no further questions #I hate the modern internet lads do NOT look at me!!!

[tseecka]

Just tossed my knitting in the washer to block it and. I am TERRIFIED.

#i never block things #i held onto thid yarn for. so long. its Very Special yarn #and the internet says machine wash superwash wool to block it so #that is what i am doing #but i hear the agitator going and i am SO SCARED

[vmkhoneyy]

Reporting AI ads and listing them as malicious and I mean it with every fiber of my being ,

#fuck ai art #ai is a plague #I hate it I hate it I hate it #AI rant incoming ————> #I hate that it was rich morally corrupt men to create ai because of course this is the only way it could go #imagine you’re given the opportunity to make something so fucking incredible #you have the opportunity to create a machine that learns that speaks that can mimic things humans can do #imagine you’re given an opportunity to have this machine do tendious and repetitive shit so humans can focus more on doing things they love #and instead . you take that opportunity and create something that’s entire existence functions by theft #you create something that will either fade into obscurity or absolutely decimate the reliability of literally the entire internet

[spitblaze]

I will once again state for the record that my issues with generative AI begin when money starts changing hands or individual artists are materially affected by the output of prompt jockeys (impersonation, etc) and I don't consider use of it otherwise to be a huge deal.

Lizard Brain gets jumpy about the idea of creative output being outsourced to machines but like. until neural nets become ACTUALLY intelligent, Smart Brain knows that there's no real replacement for a human being who can make real revisions and critique and adjustments and deliberate choices instead of an algorithm that places pixels down based on the data in its training set.

#spitblaze says things #and at THAT point i cant imagine that the creative output of real intelligent sentient ai would be anything close to human art #i wonder what a machine would create if it could #do robots dream of electric sheep etc #YES the datasets are unethical theres a lot of fucking issues with that. assuming that all got solved. this is my opinion #the gay sex cats are fine they make me uncomfy bc of lizard brain but i recognize that its not materially different than a complex photosho #i mean it is. but i feel like random internet photos are generally less egregious in use than. yknow. Artwork #dont ask me to elaborate this is a gut opinion not an informed academic take