“The universe danced towards life. Life was a remarkably common commodity. Anything sufficiently complicated seemed to get cut in for some, in the same way that anything massive enough got a generous helping of gravity. The universe had a definite tendency towards awareness. This suggested a certain subtle cruelty woven into the very fabric of space-time.”

• Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

This reminds me of an article about journalism and the internet, from ages ago. A class was asked how they would research for a topic (it was some recent political event, I don’t remember). The class confidently answered “the internet.” The professor struggled to get them to understand that wasn’t enough. Yes, there is all kinds of stuff about this event on the internet, but how did it get there?. And more importantly, what is missing?

Sure, all the sexy AI stuff gives us goosebumps and sounds great. But how did it get there, and what is missing? Someone somewhere has to do the actual original work first, or it’s just making collages from the same library over and over and over again.

And petting wildlife. Or trying to take selfies with wildlife. Or feeding wildlife.

No, no, and no.

Even a cute lil’ chipmunk is a no-no. Bison, moose, and their sweet huggable calves are serious no-nos.

The important thing is NOT to read the numbers and odds when/if it happens to you. Treatments are progressing rapidly, and odds are based on people receiving treatment 5+ years previously.

Meanwhile those of us living in areas where there is rabies are cringing and shrieking “noooooooo, do not touch!!!”

If you forget your glasses all ya gotta do is enlarge the text size. Digital is pretty groovy.

Learned to drive stick when I was 12. You can get away with a lot when you live on a farm/ranch…

It’s a Mars exploration vehicle!

• most people I know

Snyder Spindles are my favorite! https://www.snyderspindles.com/

Some people view sex as a means of expressing affection and connection, rather than as a means of having an orgasm. They would have no issue buying a sex toy to get their physical needs met, however hiring a person wouldn’t make sense to them because of the lack of emotional connection.

They don’t want to date a man who is regularly going to sex workers?

Russia probably saw this weakness

Good ol’ “Foundations of Geopolitics” by Aleksandr Dugin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

“Hallucinate” seems like an odd vocabulary choice when talking about an AI. It implies much more sentience than an AI can possibly have, plus the ability to spontaneously create from whole-cloth. (Which AI can’t do, at all.)

I feel like our brave new culture needs a different word for the non-sensical/inaccurate products of AI; something with the flavors of “assemble” “fabricate” “construct” “collate” “collage” “grab-bag”.

Our vocabulary isn’t keeping up with technology. Is there a linguist in the house? We need more words!

Fun fact: I have some foreign colleagues who use ChatGPT to get the base for their patient reports. They give very short(and non personal!) instructions, a nice text pops out, they add in the details. Voila. Their report is better than mine as a native.

In the end, how is this different than using a good Epic template? Sit down and create a wardrobe of templates and smart-phrases for your reports. It will end up as fast as those ChatGPT texts, but it will be your own writing and details that you control. Epic has several different ways to import and copy other people’s templates, too. You could even use one of those ChatGPT reports to create part of your template if you like.

“Hey, Joe, tell people we won’t use their data for AI without their permission!”

“But… they already gave permission by accepting the TOS, didn’t they?”

“Yeah, but they’re too stupid to realize that. So just keep repeating that we won’t use their data without their permission. That’ll get ‘em off our backs.”

Terry Pratchett. It was at a book signing. He stayed very late, until every last person got their book signed. Generous and warm with everyone in line.

Spam musubi! Yummmmmmm

Bring back stick-shift, too. People shouldn’t be driving if they have no grasp of the mass and inertia of their car. We should be able to disengage the engine at will. And we should have to pay attention when we drive.