TonusOH

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Posts by TonusOH

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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  TonusOH

  Poor teeball. His shitbag employer might have to let him go... :(
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  22

  AI Generated Art - Impact on Artists

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  unless you've been hibernating under a rock for the last couple of years, you're probably aware that ai is the new hotness.. chatgpt gets a lot of attention but equally amazing is how capable ai is at generating art.

  if you'd been ask to name anything that would be the last holdout for humans, creative arts such as writing, painting, and music would probably be some of the things at the top of the list.. yet those seem to be the things that ai can do best.. it's fascinating to use the tools, but one thing you realize is that they are just combining patterns and shapes, there isn't yet any real "intelligence", artificial or otherwise.. as an example, you can ask it to create a painting in the style or a particular artist, with a whole raft of things you want to include.

  it will do a great job on first glance, but can often give people more arms or fingers than is normal, and lamp-posts can grow to different heights, like trees.

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  TonusOH

  enoughisenough: Do you feel like it is your artwork?

  That's a good question. I think that the level of effort or involvement dictates that for me. I'll use a different application as an example: DAZ3D, which lets you use 3D models and build scenes, which you can then render or animate.

  The application comes with some pre-built models, textures, and scenes. You can easily create a rendered 3D image by clicking a few buttons. You can even make it unique by moving the camera slightly, or changing the properties of the light, and so on. In other words, you can do very little work and get a fully-rendered image, or even a short animation. Is this your work? I'm on the fence about it. On the one hand, someone else created all of the parts and did 99% of the necessary work. On the other hand, the specific one you just built would not exist without that button press. And if pressing a button doesn't make the art yours, what of photography?

  Now, there are people who will update the 3D items or build their own, and who will carefully set up the lights and the cameras and then export the finished scene to Photoshop. Just as some photographers go far beyond just point-and-shoot. I think those people put a clear stamp on the work, to the extent that it becomes a familiar style. Maybe that is when the work is really theirs.

  I'm not sure where that line is. But I grew up drawing (and, very rarely, painting) and so I am used to doing the physical work of creating art from thought to final form. These days, I use digital tools extensively. Is the final product still mine? I think so. But I know some artists who would hesitate to say that what I produce now is my work. I think we're at the start of a long debate that will probably grow contentious in various communities.
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  22

  AI Generated Art - Impact on Artists

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  unless you've been hibernating under a rock for the last couple of years, you're probably aware that ai is the new hotness.. chatgpt gets a lot of attention but equally amazing is how capable ai is at generating art.

  if you'd been ask to name anything that would be the last holdout for humans, creative arts such as writing, painting, and music would probably be some of the things at the top of the list.. yet those seem to be the things that ai can do best.. it's fascinating to use the tools, but one thing you realize is that they are just combining patterns and shapes, there isn't yet any real "intelligence", artificial or otherwise.. as an example, you can ask it to create a painting in the style or a particular artist, with a whole raft of things you want to include.

  it will do a great job on first glance, but can often give people more arms or fingers than is normal, and lamp-posts can grow to different heights, like trees.

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  TonusOH

  I agree about hands. I think AI will eventually be fine-tuned enough to capture even something as complex as human hands and similar structures. I think it's less about the amount of data fed to it, and more about smarter algorithms.
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  60

  WARNING! If you DELIBERATELY avoid the JW memorial.....

  by BoogerMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  .......you will experience a fate worse than death!

  you have been warned - don't come crying to me if you don't go.

  you've got one month to change your mind.

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  TonusOH

  I try not to look back at what may have been lost in the years I spent as a JW. I'm happy enough to have gotten out and gained my freedom and a fuller control of my life than I ever had. I can't change the past, I can only live in the present and plan for the future. So I'm happier by doing the latter two and minimizing the impact of those lost years.

  Or, to quote from No Country For Old Men: “All the time you spend tryin to get back what's been took from you there's more goin out the door. After a while you just try and get a tourniquet on it.”
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  57

  Court case Jehovah's Witnesses Norway kicked off

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://cne.news/article/2827-court-case-jehovah-s-witnesses-norway-kicked-off.

  norwegian jehovah's witnesses are in court this wednesday and thursday.

  they are fighting the government's decision to remove their registration as a religious community.. .

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  TonusOH

  Diogenesister: But the government has a duty to protect minors and social isolation is one of the cruelest things you can do to a social animal.

  Based on what is in the elder's manuals that AndersonsInfo posted, they could successfully argue that their shunning policy does not violate the Norwegian government's standards. It would not be the first time that the WTS modified policy to conform to such pressure (I think they claimed that they did not forbid blood transfusions to avoid sanctions in Bulgaria, didn't they?). And they could say one thing and do another, by pressuring the rank and file to shun even if their guidelines have relaxed the rules.

  But if they start on the road to relaxing those rules in order to gain something so insignificant (when considering the possible gain/loss from the change in loyalty to Jehovah), it could open the door to weakening the concept and eventually dropping it altogether. Or at least, one can hope so.
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  16

  Almost got caught lying about listening in to yesterday's Memorial

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i have not attended any kingdom hall meetings in 10 years.

  the elders gave up on me a while ago.. the last 3 years i get phone calls to listen in to zoom meetings.

  listened in several times... nothing has changed!

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  TonusOH

  Slide presentations? Nice!

  I wonder if they'll ever do the memorial in VR, so you can partake of Jesus's flesh and blood without having to nibble a cracker and sip some wine.
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  32

  Is the ministry really taken seriously by most JWs?

  by XBEHERE in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what say you?.

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  TonusOH

  I think that most of us took it seriously, but it was also something of a grind. The lack of enthusiasm was usually due to being in a rough environment and dealing with lots of negative reactions. On days with nice weather, where we were visiting houses and not apartment buildings, it could be pleasant.

  I didn't like feeling as if we were annoying people, even though we felt the work was important. So many people knew that when the doorbell rang at 10:30am on a Saturday or Sunday, it was those -bleeping- Jehovah's Witnesses. And they made sure we knew that they were aggravated. The few times we would find someone who would listen at all were nice, but those got fewer and fewer, it seemed.

  If I had been given the option to stand next to a magazine rack and smile as people walked past, it would have felt as a bit of a relief. It wouldn't have felt like real preaching, but it would have been less stressful.
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  21

  We're you regular at all the meetings?

  by Hellothere in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  we're you regular at the 3 meetings days watchtower hade?

  i remember our was tuesday, thursdays and saturdays.

  in reality it's crazy they hade so many meetings.

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  TonusOH

  I attended all meetings for most of my time as a JW. As I began my slow fade, I started missing meetings. It was a real grind. Even now, I tend to feel like I have to hurry home after work, even though I don't have any obligations in the evenings anymore. It stays with you.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  Nor does he have millions of subscribers. His YT page shows 109,000. As the screenshot above shows, his views are a very small percentage of his subscribers. You can make up some of that with volume, but it still doesn't seem like he's generating a lot of income via YouTube.

  He has convinced himself that he cannot be an activist if he isn't a "professional" one, by which he means that his activism work generates enough income for him --and his family, and Tibor-- to live comfortably. Many activists (most, would be my guess) do this kind of work with little or no remuneration, and have to work or find financial support elsewhere. His activism is only possible if it is convenient to him. If it was important to him, he could do his videos and other content with even less than he receives now.
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  22

  AI Generated Art - Impact on Artists

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  unless you've been hibernating under a rock for the last couple of years, you're probably aware that ai is the new hotness.. chatgpt gets a lot of attention but equally amazing is how capable ai is at generating art.

  if you'd been ask to name anything that would be the last holdout for humans, creative arts such as writing, painting, and music would probably be some of the things at the top of the list.. yet those seem to be the things that ai can do best.. it's fascinating to use the tools, but one thing you realize is that they are just combining patterns and shapes, there isn't yet any real "intelligence", artificial or otherwise.. as an example, you can ask it to create a painting in the style or a particular artist, with a whole raft of things you want to include.

  it will do a great job on first glance, but can often give people more arms or fingers than is normal, and lamp-posts can grow to different heights, like trees.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  Some of the early efforts I've seen have been mixed, but I think AI art will continue to separate those who make the effort from those who don't. I've seen people spamming art sites with AI generated works, apparently as a cheap and easy way to make a quick buck, and I've seen people who use AI to enhance their work and add a depth to it that they couldn't previously. Sure, it may seem as if they're cheating a bit, but they're taking advantage of a new tool to produce better artwork. Because they make the effort, their work looks very nice. The spammed artwork is full of glitches and just plain bad design.

  As someone who dabbles in both art and writing, I'm more ambivalent about it than you might think, but that is because the market has changed. Already, people are able to steal both artwork and writing to make easy money at the expense of creators. I think that the future opportunities for creators are to build a small but loyal following that wants your work, not facsimiles or poorly-designed copies. Art/writing mills will make some money in the short term, but those who build a real following will have sustained income and sustained engagement for as long as they want.

  And yes, AI might shake up some of the industries or communities where there was easy money to be made by stealing from others. When you can generate art without technically stealing it, and when you can get 'good enough' results with a few queries... this could lead to hard times for art/writing thieves. I'm not going to shed any tears over it.