Notices by Mutiny Crinshaw :anarchism: (mutinyc@mastodonbooks.net)

Last night, a storm took out a bridge. Nothing can go that way anymore, but damn if the ruins don't feel right.

I'm not a tech person, I'm a culture person, & I guess my critique of Threads is that it will almost certainly bring in celebrities along with their powerful, plundering business interests.

Threads will suck the air out of the room, creatively speaking, & when our timelines start to look like tv it will be *over.* The really creative folks who are allergic to advertising & profit will have to look for a new space yet again.

Celebrities from Threads wont just ram their crap down our gullets, either. They will steal what we've made without them, water it down, & take all the credit.

Like.
They.
Always.
Do.

My dream, a fool's dream. The printer's parts can be 3d printed. Maybe a ribbon or whatever specialized bit to buy, but standardized. It's a sturdy beast. It uses sustainable ink (not unicorn's blood at 300$ a vial). It does not lock you out of using it just because you are missing a color. Software: open-source.

If anyone is working on anything remotely this, please let me know. I would fund this & share it with all the writing communities I am in.

I am begging you. Please. It's miserable.

While AI has been labeled a "solution," it does not solve any problem for any writer I know.

You know what would?

A fucking *printer that works.*

As an experienced writer, I often also teach #writing to specialists in other fields. One consideration I find crucial:

There is no "general audience."

Writing for a specific audience will breathe life into your words.

Writing for an abstract audience will leave your writing dead upon the page.

Few readers bother with anything written "for everyone" ... but an intercepted letter? - exquisitely compelling.

Don't you agree?

"Go to graduate school," they said. "Follow your dreams," they said.

All graduate school did was normalize 12+ hour workdays, evenings, weekends, holidays. I feel like a fool to this day.

"Cat IT, have you tried yelling at your food dish to see if it fills back up?"

@rotnroll666

I can't reply there, but you might be interested to see one way in which that shallow, superficial image creation can be weaponized against art.

I am trying & trying to articulate what a bad take it is for a writer to say "I can't pay an artist" but it leaves me seething on such a fundamental level that I just. can't. do it.

Fellow writers need to understand the extent to which their online content has been used to program "AI." The "artificial" intelligence is YOU. The "artificial" intelligence is also the artist. We are natural allies in this struggle. The same technology cheapens some of our deepest creative urges.

I think folks need to understand that within a number of years, AI-generated "content" will be the microplastic of our online ecosystem.

@InternetEh
This is real, though. Hair care is so personal. And dangerously political! I moved to Albuquerque and got stuck in a chair more than once with some damn fool running their queerphobic, misogynist mouth, with scissors and a razor, half a haircut in. Never did find a safe person and ended up just cutting off all my hair for years.