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Thursday, May. 23, 2024

11:57am EDT

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Toe in the Water

by Beholden

Rated: 13+ · Book · Experience · #2223922

A tentative blog to test the temperature.

Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end.

So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.

Signature for those who are nominated for a Quill Award in 2021

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Anni Pon

May 19, 2024 at 12:46pm
In response to "AI and All That"

It does feel like doom and gloom, especially for a profession like writing. But I don't think creative jobs are actually in that much danger (yet) from AI, because it just doesn't compare to a human in that area. AI is not creative, it just recognizes patterns in data and spits it back out. So the creative arts (creative writing, art, music) is actually one of the few domains where I think human expertise will be valued over AI, even as the use of AI becomes more wide-spread. It's a good sign that publishers are already demanding transparency when it comes to using AI in writing.

Will AI take over some jobs in the future? Yeah, probably. But it's more likely that the jobs of the future will be working with and using AI, not necessary replaced by AI.

However, I can't predict the future. Maybe AI can. I'll ask Siri.

1 Like

SP is Muddling through

May 19, 2024 at 11:32am
In response to "AI and All That"

Beholden

I agree with 98% of what you said. The one quibble I have is that for things like Scientific inquiries about systems that change a lot, like coral reefs, AI is a good tool for analyzing that.

However I do feel threatened by AI. It seems to be taking all the jobs that smart people would normally do. It thinking it knows how to write anything that isn't business related. The fact that corporate greed will do anything to make more and spend less leading to companies salivating over the possibility of replacing costly workers with soulless AI. That really makes me upset.

2 Like

Beholden

May 19, 2024 at 10:43am
In response to "AI and All That"

I am like most people - I understand when something affects the way I live and the things I do, but there is less understanding when it comes to other uses for the matter under discussion. I'm sure you're right, Anni, that AI has lots to offer in other fields but, to the writer, it really feels like doom. But I do agree that you can't put toothpaste back in the tube - it's just that sometimes we should try.

1 Like

Anni Pon

May 19, 2024 at 10:00am
In response to "AI and All That"

Also, I hope I haven't offended any young folks with the above comment. It's not the entire generation, it's just a trend. If you're actively on a writing site like this, probably doesn't apply to you.

Anni Pon

May 19, 2024 at 9:52am
In response to "AI and All That"

AI is just a tool, in my opinion. There are things it should be used for, and things it should definitely not be used for. It's actually great at debugging code or explaining complicated statistics and other concepts, which is mostly how I use it. Much better than Google. I don't use it at all for writing, although I'm sure a lot of people do. I honestly think it's contributing already to the newer generation's illiteracy. I've seen a dramatic drop in writing ability and reading comprehension in the youth, I think because they've all but stopped reading and don't have to communicate in full sentences with proper grammar in their daily lives. When they do read, it's usually audio books and podcasts. When they do write, they can easily outsource it to Grammerly or ChatGTP so they aren't really forced to learn or use the rules. It's going to be a huge problem when a generation with minimal writing skills and reading comprehension get to be adults...

So I definitely get your point about AI being a danger to the writing profession. I do think there are other uses that are going to revolutionize society; it's just so new that society hasn't caught up to it yet. They're just throwing AI into everything now, where it doesn't belong, and the rules and regulations are lagging behind. Not to mention, the people making the laws have no clue what AI even is or what it can do. Unfortunately, the cat is out of the bag and there's no way it's going to be put back in now. We just have to make sure it's used responsibly, because there is potential for a lot of good, but also a lot of harm.

Simply Me

May 16, 2024 at 9:32am
In response to "The Way of the World"

I hear you there. They say the grass is greener....too and it's not. lol

1 Like

Beholden

May 15, 2024 at 6:35pm
In response to "Being Consistently Inconsistent"

Not rude at all, Amethyst. The truth may hurt sometimes but it's never rude. And you're especially right that we learn from everyone that we read, even if we're not aware of it.

1 Like

Amethyst Angel🌸📝🪽

May 15, 2024 at 6:28pm
In response to "Being Consistently Inconsistent"

I have no idea about my style… mostly I strive for class and decency. For instance, if a story I found had a lot of swearing in it or was obviously “X-rated”, I wonder who the algorithms would identify it as resembling. Short of such obvious turn-offs, I look for the same level of awareness of the importance of subtle word choices and descriptions in the works of others that I do in my own. For instance, I see you, Beholden, and our friend Jack Tyler, as being on the same level of dignified writing, saying what needs to be said, even if it’s gritty, in the most tolerable way possible. Joey (dare I say it aloud?) is in a separate category entirely. He’s a dear helpful soul who wouldn’t purposely offend anyone, but his love for tapping into the most visceral sides of human emotions, right down to the snot on one’s tear-stained sleeve, can get on my nerves. And when he writes in the Dickensian era, his language becomes nearly Elizabethan, which I thought seemed exaggerated. But one can learn from every style of writing. And I hope I haven’t been rude.

Beholden

May 15, 2024 at 6:06pm
In response to "Being Consistently Inconsistent"

That's the interesting thing - I've never been able to see that I have a style and I wonder whether any of us can. It may be that we're too involved with what we write to be able to step back and view it completely dispassionately.

In the end, I just do what I do and I suspect everyone else does their thing as well.

2 Like

Jayne

May 15, 2024 at 6:00pm
In response to "Being Consistently Inconsistent"

I assure you that you have a distinct voice. I can (almost) always tell a piece you've written without even looking at the name attached to it.

Sometimes, I can pick out an influence insofar as "that is reminiscent of [fill in the writer]" but never "Oh, that's clearly an attempt at [fill in the writer]."

Steven's is probably consistent enough to skew King. That doesn't surprise me.

For those of us who dabble in all the things, the prediction machine will no doubt bounce around.

1 Like

November 29, 2022 at 5:24pm

#1041144

Birdies

Birdies

The prompt for Lilli 🧿 ☕

’s Promptly Poetry Challenge this week is the word “Birds.” It got me thinking and, eventually, I came up with a particular bird I could write about. On the way, however, I came across a thought that might stand considerable pondering for all of us.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the generally-accepted theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that they are, therefore, the survivors of that supposedly extinct line. The idea gives me no problems but I do wonder exactly when this happened.

This is a fairly important question because of the Cretacious-tertiary mass extinction event of 65 million years ago. The currently popular theory is that a large meteor struck the Earth in the vicinity of Mexico, causing severe worldwide climate disruption and the demise of the dinosaurs. So any evolution from dinos to birdies must have taken place before the meteor arrived. There were no dinosaurs left after the event to evolve into anything after that, presumably.

The problem then becomes the dearth of bird fossils found dating from before the meteor. To have given rise to the huge population of birds now evident on our planet, there must have been a few birds at least that witnessed the extinction of the dinosaurs. It seems strange, then, that, so far, we have found no fossils of such early birds.

We do have good old archaeopteryx, of course, and a few other dinosaurs that seem on their way to becoming birds, but nothing that has made the giant step from dinosaur to tweety-bird. It strikes me that this is a bit of a problem when we consider the evolution of birds. Either not all the dinosaurs died in the mass extinction, or we just haven’t found the proto-bird fossils that the theory so desperately needs. There may be good reasons for this absence of fossils but I haven’t thought of them yet.

As an example, it might be that the delicacy of bones needed to ensure lightness and therefore flight has mitigated against their preservation. But we have fossils of things as fragile and ephemeral as ferns and flowers. Can’t think why bird bones should be even more prone to decay before fossilisation.

Understand, I’m not arguing against the theory. I’m as keen on the idea of little flying dinosaurs as anyone else. But I do wonder about how it worked.

Such are the devious ways my brain employs to avoid serious writing work.

Word count: 413

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