IT’LL GO PLACES WITHOUT YOU THEN. THANKS FOR PIPING UP.

We should not start accepting manipulated images as a replacement for real images

My point was that it is already too late for that. I understand how your feel. I also think that you’ll be part of a minority.

There is no such thing as a real image.

[Redacted], [redacted], or maybe [redacted]. We would all benefit if we just didn’t hear from him ever again and then his name or title really don’t matter.

The comment was the first one I ever made with that account.

With that account. Can I read that as ‘but I have others that have been banned for understandable reasons’? If so, you give me no indication why I shouldn’t take my hunch to the grave.

Whether or not I agree with your take on decentralized social media is irrelevant. I believe that trolling on other platforms, or indeed this one, will not further the cause you have summarized.

It was Samsung and they were just ahead of the time. Consider that in the field of photography we’ve gone from a photograph being a big and often expensive black and white deal to snapping pictures willy nilly on a device everybody carries around in their pockets. We had already accepted retouching of photos even before Photoshop. Photoshop or similar applications are now also available to more people on the same devices they carry around to snap ask these pictures. Photographs today are an artifice of human intervention and/or computer processing. No image is just what happened. The RAW data has probably been heavily edited by the photographer to get the final effect they wanted. Even before so-called AI they have gone in and changed shit around. And they’ve become so masterful at it that most of us cannot tell the difference. They have probably, on occasion, replaced a whole sky or the moon on shots before they ended up in a brochure. This is nothing new. So if these tricks get automated now, that shows me more how widespread they already were. And I think we are not talking about this as much because we as a society like being cheated like that because it looks good.

If I had to hazard a guess, your comment managed to violate another guideline or contained unsuitable language. I would also not be surprised to learn that if we managed to get ahold of the person who deleted your comment we would find out that you had a history of questionable comments and that’s why the moderative leeway afforded to you may have been cut short. The fediverse will not benefit from a crusade into other platforms in the same way coca cola doesn’t advertize with the slogan “hey, you fucking loser, you would benefit from this cool beverage of ours.”

I’m basing my guess - and I could be wrong of course - on the fact that you think I was gatekeeping rather than describing the status quo.

You gotta be able to back up a claim like that with screenshots or something else other than hearsay. It’s my impression that no one really GAF about the fediverse, or only pays lip service to it like Meta, which explains why it’s so nice. It’s only us nerds here willing to be our own algorithm. So I have a hard time believing this. Also, who still cares about comments on YT?

I used to be more judgmental about this stuff too. Having little terrorists of my own has mellowed me. I do prefer a kid watching YouTube videos on a tablet over the kid throwing a temper tantrum at the cafe. All parents need a break. And I feel like if my parents had had the opportunity to let me watch sesame street on a handheld device in the 80s at a restaurant, they would have in a heartbeat. There were for sure other grownups heavily judging my folks for allowing me to play Tetris on the Gameboy in the 90s while we waited for our food! And I still managed to get a bachelor’s degree.

At the same time, they thought watching too much TV wouldn’t be good for you and I don’t think that has turned out the way they feared. All gamers would automatically become sociopathic killers and they didn’t. I do think “social” media has proven to be detrimental. But the internet is vaster than that BS. Most pacifying tablet use will not turn kids’ brains into a rotting mess.

And as they get older you need to have numerous talks. The sex one, the online predator one, now the weird AI/chatbot one, the one that contextualizes pornography and other disturbing shit on the internet one. And at a certain point, maybe 16 or thereabouts, you have to let go and hope for the best. They will find all this stuff anyway. You probably did as well. I know I did. The only thing that has changed is ease of availability for most of this stuff. So that’s what we need to prepare them for and then cross our fingers.

Are we elevating a find-and-replace script to the level of artificial intelligence now?

Machine learning is so good now that it can ID your face as a baby as well. Not always, but with enough pictures you’ll reach statistical certainty.

Other than that you could maybe test DNAs. On a less invasive level, if you know your blood type, you could ask your parents for theirs and see if that makes sense.

I think that’s a little unfair. They are not babysat, they’re being distracted. And do you inspect every tablet to see if maybe the parents went to great lengths to curate suitable content and a child friendly walled garden? Not every tablet is unfiltered access to grooming chatbots.

Has anyone ever doubted their parents are their parents? Most teenagers about their biological parents during puberty.

Is it possible that you were abducted after running away? Yes. Is it very likely? No. These cases are rare but get lots of news coverage.

If you’re under 40, the lack of pictures of your childhood could be conspicuous. Most parents document the progress of their kids and after the advent of digital photography there should be lots of evidence to put your mind at ease.

Now, Melon Usk is a dick and Xwitter and Grok can go eff themselves. And at the same time: the mother has worked as a journalist, had given no consideration to which of the “personalities” of Grok to choose to let her offspring talk to in her Tesla, had neither engaged the NSFW nor the child mode settings. In her defense, she didn’t let the kid do this unattended. And of course the chatbot should not ask no one for nudes. Or genocide. Or any of the other missteps this version of so-called AI has made already.

I’m having a real hard time to picking only one side to blame here. Even if you’re not a journalist, you must have picked up enough stuff by osmosis to know that this isn’t something you should let your kid do without prior research and a look at the settings available.

Your wife made the decision for you collectively not break off the relationships all together. I understand that you don’t like it. The adage that blood is thicker than water applies here on top of any other concern. And that’s why I would tread carefully in the interest of your marriage. Another folk wisdom is that morals are something you need to be able to afford. And my guess is you will not be able to do so here in the way you would prefer. While her family is at your house, you mustn’t tolerate any bullshit and you should be free to express your dismay at the protofascist state of affairs. But I would keep it at a non-shouting, non-hostile level. Your wife has spent your morals money. Try to look at it as an opportunity to change minds. If they are at your house they cannot run away, you have a semi-captive audience, in which you can sow the seeds of doubt. If there is to be another election, this is better than a clean cut, breaking off contact, and entrenching opinions out of spite on their side. Grit your teeth and roll up that rock, Sisyphus. Calm arguments and facts, tackle the ball not the player. And find a way to channel your frustration elsewhere (punching bag in the garage, walk the dog, friendly ear that maybe isn’t your wife’s, etc.).

What’s the point of doing something by executive order that will probably be reversed on day 1 of the next administration? A better way is to go through Congress whose legislation is harder to be overturned. So your hypothetical president should lead an effort to find compromise across the aisle. Currently, a fucking budget would be nice.

Given the limited power of the president, I fail to see anything more useful this particular president could do.

Fire the VP and then resign.

Preferably perpetual sleep to drown out all the news.

6 and 24 preferably.

I’ll be glad when he is no longer in power. I’m equally afraid of who will succeed him. Could our angry Americans please use their anger to change the absolutely insane system by which a president is elected and then invest wholesale in education? That’s just two examples I could think of off the top of my head. What’s good about getting rid of the orange only to fall into a fruit salad?