Tell a Braver Story

So often I see people who are like "yeah, I know ai is bad for the environment/my mental health, but I'm so lonely/bored/burnt out that it's all I have". They've been shamed for it but don't know what else to do, so instead of stopping, now they're just ashamed and doing it in silence.

Orpheus gives new hope to Eurydice, new hope to the workers, new hope to Hades and Persephone, but at the end, doubt and despair make him turn around and lose everything. Literally a case of, "I give hope to others, and have none left for myself."

However, I do think this case is great example of what happens when smart people decide they can use these systems “responsibly.”

Let’s put aside the plagiarism and the energy use for a second (not that these don’t matter, but they’re not relevant to my point at the moment) and pretend these systems were made with entirely properly obtained info and ran on only solar, but otherwise were entirely the same. If you’re a person, you might think “okay, I’m going to only use this to come up with ideas for my next paper: I’m going to do all the research myself and the writing, I’m just gonna brainstorm topics.”

The thing is, even if you’re trying to limit use to just “brainstorming” the chatbot isn’t going to limit itself to just brainstorming. You might ask it “what should I write about involving Greek history” and it may suggest “the plague of Athens” but it’s also going to suggest some “basic info” on the plague of Athens that you might end up picking up and deciding your topic is. It’s going to provide you with “research.” And even if you decide to check that research yourself, that’s still setting you down a specific path you might not have picked organically.

And speaking of double checking its “research”, fact checking is a time heavy process. Not only now do you have to read the original text the bot provided, but you also have to compare it line by line with the summary the bot provided. That’s more time than it would have taken to just read the article by itself. And with any time heavy task, people are going to get lazy. And in original research being lazy might mean skimming a paper or an abstract, chatbots allow you to be lazy without looking at the article at all.

And soon enough, despite telling yourself you were only going to use it for brainstorming, you have offloaded topic generation, research and eventually even drafting because that’s what these bots are intended to do. They are not meant to serve as research tools or help brainstorm or serve as a bouncing off board: they are built to encourage maximum engagement. And that means if you go at them with the best of ethical intentions, they are built to tempt you to use them as much as possible, regardless of whatever line you drew in the sand for yourself.

Book where the medieval priest sends a letter off to... either his bishop or a different scholarly cleric he knows and trusts, I don't remember... asking "settle a question for me: if there were men not descended from Adam, and very different in shape and form, what would their theological status be? would they still fall under the Redemption?"

And his correspondent sends back a reasoned discussion leading to "Yes, these hypothetical men would still fall under the Redemption and need the Sacraments like everyone else."

The guidelines are as follows:

Compile your August goals into one post and mark each item as desired upon completion. You may be as vague or detailed as you wish. It only needs to serve yourself.

Tag all relevant posts with #august days of productivity, that way we can more easily support each other and make this feel like a community challenge.

Starting 1st August, do one thing every day, however small, to bring yourself closer to your goals.

Regular updates are encouraged, whether they be daily, weekly, or just every so often, but what really matters is accomplishing the things we set out to do.

Enjoy the journey: you cannot "fail" as long as you are having fun!

On 31st August, we can reflect on the past month and congratulate ourselves for our dedication.

Additionally, I challenge each and every participant to actively contribute towards the community feeling by interacting with each other, beyond just leaving a like. Reblog, comment, congratulate, encourage. We are all busy and tired and stressed, and a kind word goes such a long way!

Emily Brontë would likely approve these ideas in creating "Wuthering Heights" adaptation.

I finished my first embroidery project!! After three years of putting it away for months only to pick it up again, my hobbit hole is finally complete and I’m so proud of how it turned out! If you’re interested, my blog holds some of my old progress pictures:)