iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Yeah, just random musings I guess. I tend to do that.

This person was a model, so she’s accustomed to people touching her. But I often have to mic up people not accustomed to that, and some wardrobes are more elaborate than others. And I’ve never gotten accused of being a creep for this. Consent is not difficult. No reason I’m remembering this now.

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I explained the process of letting her know what I needed to do and getting consent at every step of the way. In the end, the company hired me in for three more days (she was a producer on the project).

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Back in the halcyon days of Twitter, I had a thread where I described the process of hiding a mic and transmitter on a woman’s body when she was wearing, well, let’s just say it left nothing to the imagination. I used that to show why I wasn’t afraid of being a Me Too accusee.

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Saying, “Rape is bad,” is easy. Any asshole can do that. Actually showing that you are safe, and working to dismantle rape culture, that’s the hard work. And you’ll find most people don’t want to do the hard work.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Among the excuses, people who will gladly endorse that rape is bad will become the semantics police when others argue what rape is. Or they’ll introduce ambiguity when it comes to consent. Or expect victims to behave in a manner contrary to human nature.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The punchline also describes this joke!

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Reposted by Autistic Max

Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I made something.

A four panel graphic.

Panel 1: “What they say AI is” over a picture of R2-D2.

Panel 2: “What we hope AI will be” over a picture of Data from Star Trek.

Panel 3: “What we fear AI is” over a picture of The Terminator.

Panel 4: “What AI actually is” over a picture of Bender from Futurama smoking a cigar.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It’s not even a particularly obscure story. Like, Stepford is an adjective that people understand immediately. Were they not paying attention?

Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Maybe in a few years, that study will be wildly debunked. Science is always changing, erroneous conclusions have a way of spreading like memes. See also: the alpha theory, you only use ten percent of your brain…

Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

“Fully developed brain” is more an idiom than any fact backed by science. There was a recent study that suggests the adult brain stage begins at around 32. I don’t think anyone will seriously argue a 28 year old isn’t a full fledged adult. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Fig. 4: The definition of turning points. | Nature Communications | Nature Communications

figure 4

Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

When I was a kid, I learned that dinosaurs were giant cold blooded lizards. In the last 30 plus years, we now know they’re more like giant warm blooded chickens.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Make a band edible: Creedence Cookie Revival

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No, it's advertised as a threat against artists, not a tool or an entirely new discipline. But it can never replace artists because the process is why we create, the human touch is why it resonates.

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The goal of AI is not to help writers or photographers, it's to replace them. Why hire someone when a computer can do it all for you? Why buy books when you can generate unlimited stories for yourself? It misses the point of why we create in the first place, nor does it augment the creation.

Other tools didn't replace the art, they just gave artists more ways to do it. Word processors and keyboards gave writers more tools to write. Photo manipulation has existed since photos have, and Photoshop just created new tools to streamline that.

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But why didn't photography replace portrait painters? Because they are fundamentally different art forms. The invention of photography created a new artistic discipline.

"Content" needs to be entertaining, filling time fundamentally misunderstands why people watch anything. People read books because the author has a compelling voice, they're entertaining, and fiction can teach us a lot about ourselves. Generated text with no purpose beyond content cannot do that.

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What is the objective of a movie? To provide content for the masses. What is the objective of a book? Content. What is the objective to design a sign for your business? To have the name in the window. When you think like that, no wonder you think all the arts are "cooked."

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But the idea that nobody commissioned a portrait because you could just have a photograph that's far more accurate betrays the mindset of these AI zealots. They see art from a purely functional standpoint, and suddenly all their nonsense makes sense.

If anything, widespread photography made commissioned portraits all the more prized. A lot of painters also became pretty good photographers since they have an innate sense of composition.

I think the comparison assumes the point of a portrait is to have a picture of the person, and brushstrokes were the only option before photographs. Except it never was. A portrait is always an impression. People commission portraits because they're very appealing impressions.

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Did Photography Really Kill Portrait Painting? - JSTOR Daily

One line I see about AI is, "It's here and it's inevitable. It's gonna replace your jobs like photographs replaced portrait painters." That's the exact comparison they use. Except it didn't. daily.jstor.org/did-photogra...

daily.jstor.org

While some viewed photography as a competitor for their customers, Dutch portrait painters reaped the benefits of the emerging medium.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Mine briefly dropped, then jumped right back up and is now sitting at an 840 or so. Before the mortgage, it was always high, but never that high!

Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I’ve been using Backblaze for over a decade. Automatic cloud backups, secure, private. When I’ve needed that data, I’ve had no issue downloading it. Well worth the cost as an insurance. No, they didn’t pay me for this. www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup...

backblaze.com

Cloud Backup: Easy, Secure Online Backup - Backblaze

Never lose a photo, video, or file again. Cloud backup made easy and automatic. Backblaze unlimited online backup for $9 per month.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I watched three seconds of that and I feel like I need to take a hot shower in bleach and isopropyl.

Inefficiencies can be a wonderful thing, and they keep your mind sharp. I wonder if that joke would have even occurred to me if I was more open to consult AI for anything. 10/10

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Humor is a skill, and one that’s somewhat esoteric. AI reliance is insidious. It starts with using it innocently as a tool, and then your instinct becomes to use it first and you lose the skill to lookup and parse information yourself. I am troubled by how fast this seems to happen. 9/10

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Also, I spent the last 41 years honing my comedic skills. So when she asked, I knew the funnier response was to reverse the expectation. “You were right, that is a typo. The typo is I named the wrong city,” while in context, that makes no sense. It’s funnier still if I get the time zone right. 8/10

And even if they did know how to do that, use AI and the instinct becomes, just ask AI, and you lose these skills over time. 7/10

In the process, I had to do some very simple math, study a map and know how to interpret some data. Would someone who just asks ChatGPT for everything know how to do that, or figure out what steps to take? Again, this isn’t even complex research. 6/10

And that really hit home how much reliance on AI just takes away. When you use AI, you remove yourself from the process, and when you rely on AI, your first instinct is to always take the shortcut. I never use AI, so the hard way was my first instinct. 5/10

Sure, I could have asked ChatGPT to list cities that are 12 hours ahead of Houston and ended up in the same place, but I didn’t because I didn’t think of that. My instinct was to figure, “Houston is UTC -5, 12 hours ahead would be +7, what cities are there? I will look this up.” 4/10

I then said, “You have no idea how many poorly designed websites I had to trudge through to confirm and make that joke.” She replied, “But you put in an effort, which is more important than AI.” And that’s why I’m sharing here: it didn’t occur to me to use AI 3/10

To make that Bangkok joke, I immediately looked up time zone information in the world, exited a few websites for being so poorly designed they were unusable on the phone, and found a good one to look up well known cities 12 hours ahead of Houston. I like accuracy with my jokes. 2/10

Funny story: So I was arranging time to call a friend in Houston, I’m in Seattle. So I said I’d be done with my morning errands by 8 Pacific, 10pm Central. She said, “I hope you meant AM!” I took five minutes before replying, “No I meant 10pm in Bangkok.” Why am telling this anecdote? 1/10

Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Downplay a book or movie. Idle Chat With The Vampire.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

McConnell also can't be replaced unless he resigns or dies, not before the next election at least. So long as he remains hospitalized and not legally dead, the Republicans have one less vote in the Senate to enact Trump's agenda. Let's pray he remains absent yet alive, at least until January 3rd.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

In the House, members can assign proxies to vote for them. However in the Senate, the Senator themself must be present to vote. Mitch being absent is bad for the Republicans who already have a slim majority, because it is one less vote they can count on. So this is a good thing for Democrats.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Meanwhile, Obsession was made for peanuts, not based on any existing property, using all unknown actors, and it’s been killing it at the box office. Will Hollywood learn the right lesson from this?

static.klipy.com

Futurama: Bender Laughs at Leela

Alt: Bender from Futurama, laughing at Leela before saying, “Oh wait, you’re serious? Let me laugh even harder.”

Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

These vampires should really listen to the message of the song.

Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Has anyone given a shit what Carville thinks in the last thirty years? Cool, you helped a cool charismatic candidate who played the saxophone and was part of the inspiration for Sonic The Hedgehog win against an unpopular incumbent who also faced with a strong third party spoiler 30 years ago.

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Autistic Max @maxiemoosie.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Michael Jackson: 🎶I’m starting with the man in the mirror… Chronically Online Vampires: That’s ableist dude.