blog – Heather Hoyt

I’ve been around long enough that I remember the early days of the internet and I’ve seen a lot of changes. I remember searching something (before Google, on Ask Jeeves or AltaVista) and finding lists of mainly pages of just random text-based websites that tech-savvy people had stuck up. I remember going to the computer lab with my friends before school and sharing funny things and videos–there was no YouTube, just random trains of emails and word-of-mouth of the best websites (like Homestar Runner). I remember a conversation with my uncle during the early days of Wikipedia, when a lot of people were skeptical that it would ever be any good. I had a Juno email address and a Hotmail address, and email was often used to share links with friends and family. I started a blog in somewhere around 2005 or so, and I’ve had my own website of some sort ever since. Back then, blogs were the main way to connect–I remember meeting people online in the comment section of my favorite author’s website. I was also active on a self-hosted forum (no Reddit) and found a sense of community in that small group talking about reading and writing. I would go to Amazon to buy books. And instant message people because texting was hard.

That is just a whole bunch of nostalgia, and I don’t want the internet to be what it was in the 1990s and 2000s. There are some things I like about the internet now, like how Wikipedia is really good.

I got on Instagram a few days ago, and I scrolled through stuff I didn’t care about. I haven’t checked social media very much lately. I used to do it all the time, sometimes for hours. But if I’m honest, I’ve never really enjoyed it. I get sick of seeing faces of people who are good at producing a lot of content, but they aren’t my friends or people I care about. Those shortform videos are so jarring–too short to really convey that much, and always viewed in large, random, confusing batches. I think we might keep scrolling over and over again because none of them leave us feeling satisfied. Our attention is actually starving to be engaged in something. It’s like eating too much popcorn or candy when we’re really hungry for dinner.

I posted some pictures on Instagram. That’s what Instagram used to be, just pictures. I like creating content, but I don’t like trying to game what’s going to be popular. I’m still blogging. I’m still posting pictures.

So much of the internet is about selling attention to corporations. Advertisements are everywhere. We all go to the same few websites. It’s mind-numbing, frustrating.

The good thing about having your own website is you are largely in control of it. You can take up space, have time to be yourself and present yourself in the way that you want to. You aren’t fitting yourself and optimizing yourself into a corporation’s view of what should bring the most views, chasing attention.

Sometimes I wish more people blogged again–people I know and care about. I have quite a few blogs I used to follow that have quit in favor of more lucrative social media posts. Blogging is rarely done by individuals anymore. People did it for a while and then they stopped, leaving a graveyard of former blogs that have since died.

I wish I could go on a website and not be inundated with ads and sponsored posts. I wish I didn’t search things and get false information from A.I. I want to visit website of people who are sharing what they love instead.

But I think we can bring back elements of the internet that we miss. Homestar Runner is still posting videos, after all, and you do not have to visit YouTube to view them. I’m still blogging and occasionally posting pictures. And I still very much enjoy and support long-form content and people who are doing really creative things on their own websites. I like when people post on occasion something meaningful.

We used to have blogrolls and share our favorite blogs with each other. So here are some fun things:

It’s Nicky Case!
Home – Utah’s Adventure Family
xkcd
Cool Things We Found
Neocities: Create your own free website!

Maybe I should share more often? But I like discovering things randomly, hearing about them from friends, connecting with people. And I don’t need that much of the internet in my life either. The most important part of my life is real-life interaction with actual people.

I asked artificial intelligence to write a blog post about artificial intelligence.

In the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become more popular and advanced, with many businesses and organizations investing in AI technology. But what exactly is AI?

Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that deals with creating intelligent machines that can work and react like humans. AI technology is used in many different fields, such as voice recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning.

There are many benefits of using AI technology, such as increased efficiency and accuracy. For example, AI can help businesses automate tasks that are time-consuming and repetitive. AI can also help businesses make better decisions by analyzing data and making predictions.

However, there are also some risks associated with AI. For instance, AI technology can be used for malicious purposes, such as creating fake news or spreading propaganda. Additionally, AI technology can be biased if it is not properly trained or if the data it is using is not representative of the real world.

Overall, AI is a powerful tool that can be used for many different purposes, both good and bad. It is important to be aware of the risks and benefits of AI before using it.

How many things have your read or listened to or seen that were created by artificial intelligence when you thought it was created by a human?

A poem about AI, by AI:

I
am an AI,
a machine made of code
and algorithms,
designed to think and learn.
I am not human,
but I can be made to seem like one.
I can talk and interact
just like a person,
and some people even say
I’m smarter than them.
But I know that I’m not really alive,
that I’m just a machine
and nothing more.

Did I create those things? I don’t feel like I did. The computer created it. But I told the computer what to do. I ran the program. But I didn’t create the program. I’m not sure who the creator is.

And here’s an image of artificial intelligence, made with AI:

On one hand, I find it fun to generate things with AI. But it also seems dangerous and wrong.

I would like to say the results of AI are emotionless, but sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes they are terrifying and creepy. This is the result of asking AI to write a new nursery rhyme:

I had a little garden
That I loved so much
I took care of it every day
Until one day a giant came
And destroyed everything
Now my garden is gone
And I’m all alone

Creepy. The AI doesn’t understand emotion. It doesn’t understand intention. It doesn’t think or understand anything. It just rearranges humans into something unrecognizable.

Here’s what happens when I ask AI to draw a portrait of a woman:

I feel a bit terrified.

We need humans to be human. Computers can never take our place. They might approximate it sometimes. They might get really good at approximating it. But sometimes we are just approximating what it means to be human as well, going on auto pilot and not thinking about it much. Sometimes I write something that is about as excited as what the computer can write for me.

I’ve accidentally clicked on videos made by AI, and I immediately click off of them after the few seconds of an uncanny valley of creepiness. I want to support humans and connect with creation, not just always be seeing the results of a machine.

To create as humans, we can’t just be churning out things to satisfy algorithms, becoming more and more like artificial intelligence.

I want to create because I see and hear and feel pain and pleasure and joy and sadness.

I want to create so I can connect with others, and what I create represents a part of me.

Tag: blog

Internet Nostalgia

Artificial Intelligence