Two more from the Midjourney v4 model:
"37-year-old man in a Hawaiian shirt, photograph, 32k"
and
"37-year-old bald man in a Hawaiian shirt, photograph, 32k"
Perhaps not as egregiously off-target as my previous runs at 50, 40, and 72, but they still make my brother look pretty good.
I think one thing that bothers me a lot with anything tech related is that while, yes, a lot of things can definitely have improved UX that is more user friendly, a lot of other things already have great UX that has been polished for years but gets a lot of undeserved criticism simply for being different from the status quo and/or requiring even the smallest amount of learning or effort
and I honestly entirely blame corporations that over the last 20 years have done everything to create walled gardens with the promise of "we do everything for you, if you have to think while using a computer that means it's bad"
and it's terrifying how well that worked on so so so many people
sometimes things just require you to sit down for half an hour, read something, learn something, try something you're not used to. that's normal. that is simply how anything even remotely advanced has worked for the thousands of years. you don't pick up an electric drill and throw a tantrum because it doesn't work exactly like a screwdriver. computers are a tool that let you do things, and just like any other tool, may require putting at least the smallest amount of effort into learning something
it's honestly frustrating how normalized "nuh uh i got adopted by [corporation's walled garden] and this is where i live for the rest of my life. anything even slightly different is just bad. why would I ever consider anything else, that's effort and effort is bad" has become
I understand that habits can be very strong, and I get it, adjusting to new things takes time, but it's not the end of the world. "more complex" doesn't necessarily mean "worse", it just means you would need to learn and adjust. teaching math at school doesn't stop at pre-algebra, it goes all the way to trigonometry and calculus because there's a good reason for it to be more complicated than the basics. learn something new, it's good for you.
More random #security thoughts:
1. Mastodon is pretty chill but expect a surge of troll activity with all the attention. Nothing is totally immune to the challenges associated with attention/scale.
2. Try to be open to new followers but check them out - Who do they follow? Who follows them?
3. Block quickly at any hint of malicious behavior/hate/trolling. Don't engage. Keep the vibe positive.
4. If you see patterns of abuse share that information with your followers.
Beautiful blog post reviewing the cognitive capacity of multiple animal species. Their work focuses on #animalwelfare and #cognition. #cognitivescience #behavior #physiology
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tnSg6o7crcHFLc395/the-welfare-range-table
Person without stable identity foundations. Fortunate enough to lack opinions.