The BLUGH: July 19, 2023
“I want to live, however briefly, knowing that my life is finite. Mortality gives meaning to human life. Peace, love, friendship. These are precious because we know they cannot endure. A butterfly that lives forever is really not a butterfly at all.”
Went to see Mission Impossible 7000 last week and I loved it. I love those movies so much and the crowd in the theater was amazing?!? Like clapping and woo-ing at all the right parts. Without spoiling anything, AI was a big thing in the movie which I thought was good of the writers to include because AI…she out here. It bears mentioning that Mission Impossible is not my first movie experience with AI. Bicentennial Man and A.I. Artificial Intelligence were FORMATIVE movies for me. In these films, AI was very anthropomorphized PLUS Robin Williams and child Hayley Joel Osment represented AI. Suffice it to say that 11 year old Justina was an AI apologist.
I do have some questions for my BLUGH readers about AI:
Are you guys keeping up with it? There Is so much news and developments about it that I am like 🤯.
What do you think of AI?
How long have you known that the BLUGH is entirely AI-generated I’M KIDDING
Stephen Hawking warmly said that AI "could spell the end of the human race" and maybe I am ignorant but I don’t think we’ll get there. As with any tool, though, people will wield it irresponsibly.
Yesterday, I asked ChatGPT which is dirtier, rats or pigeons. It gave a very diplomatic answer and didn’t say very strongly one way or the other (ChatGPT literally said it was “subjective”) so it’s clear to me in the AI controlled dystopian future that AI wants to ensure the allegiance of both pigeons and rats.
🤖LEARNING OF THE WEEK: If you do feel compelled to keep up with the AI of it all, you can’t do much better than this newsletter that contains all the latest in AI developments, news, tips, and tricks!🤖
PRODUCT RECOMMENDATION
Remember this pic from last week? If you look very closely you can see that it has been altered with the incredibly user-friendly, AI-powered app, Bazaart. Friend of the BLUGH, Miley, told me about this app and I can see myself VERY easily going down a rabbit hole of hilarity. But it does more than make newsletter subscribers laugh out loud (or jump scare). It’s particularly great for very easy to produce promotional artwork and the “photoshop” capabilities are fun and intuitive to use. The “Magic Edit” feature is the pièce de résistance that brought you this gem you see before you.
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BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Blind recommend: I have only just started this book but in the interest of keeping on theme, I am going to go ahead and recommend! Humans, by Matt Haig, is about human people as viewed through the eyes of an extraterrestrial visiting earth. I know AI does not equal extraterrestrial but WORK WITH ME. I am familiar with Matt Haig because of another book of his I read, The Midnight Library, which is SO GOOD. His material is light, nothing too cerebral, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need. Also, he tends to leave the reader feeling hopeful, which is lovely and frankly, needed.
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❌ NO TIKTOKS❌
Just lose this feature of the BLUGH already, you grumble with frustration at the screen. I know, I know. It’s just so hard to let go. When not abused to the point of addiction, TikTok is so fun/educational/informative!! But I remain on a TikTok cleanse and so have nothing to offer you this week.
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July 202o
Be still, my Eck-Heart!
3 years ago, friend of the BLUGH, Lisa, introduced me to Eckhart Tolle and I’ve been making it everybody’s business since then! I’ve already recommended his work in the BLUGH, and have gifted A New Earth multiple times. Oh and I was (fake) blonde 3 years ago WHAT.