[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 3 points 9 months ago

Absolutely. The problem isn't the technology, it's how it's incorporated into capitalism.

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 5 points 9 months ago

A bit of a quibble, but I think it's a stretch to say that current-gen AI is mind-like. I'm of the opinion that, given the way current AI works, there isn't any "creativity" in how midjourney/etc. generates images. Though you could make a solid argument for a detailed prompt being creative, or for a functional/algorithmic AI being a creative tool of the coder, in neither case would I say that the source of the creativity is the computer.

Then again, legal definitions would only allow creativity to come from humans, but I think other animal species are currently capable of creativity/art, in the sense of "do they do actions for purposes other than survival or reproduction."

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 8 points 9 months ago

Yeah, and it's not like the astronauts just put up a flag and left. They took soil samples, set up sensors to measure tectonic activity, etc. Rocks are interesting when you can interact with them.

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 4 points 9 months ago

I'd say content is trivial, but having the sheer variety of content that youtube has is not. Odysee has some decent stuff on there- even some decent original stuff that isn't just a mirror of someone's youtube channel. But it's not going to have the same niche, specific content I might look up on youtube.

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 4 points 9 months ago

Yep. I doubt there were that many people using adblockers back when you only had one skippable 15 second ad at the beginning of a video. But when you have 1-2 ads every 10 minutes, on top off all the premium popups, it's just unbearable.

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 2 points 9 months ago

This is also true. With DRM, I feel like we're missing out on a lot of property rights that should be remediated. I'm not sure what all could be done for zero day patches, though. Maybe we go back to the Windows XP days and distribute update packages via CD as well. TBH, though- if we have the ability to directly access the storage medium of a console and we are able to remove DRM, there's no reason to make a disc drive mandatory

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

1 - Get Recalbox on a GPi Case 2 and you'll have access to just about every system from before 2000 (including support for commodore and other similar systems). It can handle PSP games as well, but not PS2 or NDS. There are other cases available for a raspberry pi system, but I recommend the GPi Case 2 because you can play it "docked" and handheld. I recommend Recalbox since it already has a lot of support for the GPi case built into it, but if you're tech-savvy you may prefer Lakka for its flexibility. You may be able to get more modern emulators to run on the lakka as well.

2 - Gaming PC with Lakka, Citra, or whatever other emulators you'd like. And unless you're playing a lot of super new games, you don't need anything fancy- you could probably just throw windows 7 on a $100 refurbished business PC and run just about any game from 2010 or earlier, TBH.

3 - Wii or Wii U. I personally find emulation of these (specifically with a wii-mote) to be a bit finicky. If you don't use a Wii, you can substitute your personal console of choice for this one.

4 - Oculus Quest- though I'm not sure if it counts since you aren't connecting to a TV. This isn't the best VR headset but it is the cheapest. It has a good library of standalone games, and for anything else you can use airlink or the virtual desktop to run games off of a VR-ready PC (If you went with one that was beefy for #2). The quest has a lot of modding support through the sidequest. The main concern with this is that you need a phone to set up a Quest when you buy it/after a factory reset. So if Facebook goes under or a meteor hits silicon valley, this could conceivably turn into a fancy paperweight. To my knowledge, nobody has cracked the Quest to skip over this step. If historical preservation is more important to you than money, I would recommend choosing literally any other VR headset because of the setup thing.

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 3 points 11 months ago

I think the main difference between derivative/inspired works created by humans and those created by AI is the presence of "creative effort." This is something that humans can do, but narrow AI cannot.

Even bland statements humans make about nonfiction facts have some creativity in them, even if the ideas are non-copyrightable (e.g., I cannot copyright the fact that the declaration of independence was signed in 1776. However, the exact way I present this fact can be copyrightable- a timeline, chart, table, passage of text, etc. could all be copyrightable).

"Creative effort" is a hard thing to pin down, since "effort" alone does not qualify (e.g., I can't copyright a phone directory even if I spent a lot of effort collecting names/numbers, since simply putting names and numbers alongside each other in alphabetical isn't particularly creative or original). I don't think there's really a bright line test for what constitutes as "creative," but it doesn't take a lot. Randomness doesn't qualify either (e.g., I can't just pick a random stone out of a stream and declare copyright on it, even if it's a very unique-looking rock).

Narrow AI is ultimately just a very complex algorithm created based on training data. This is oversimplifying a lot of steps involved, but there isn't anything "creative" or "subjective" involved in how an LLM creates passages of text. At most, I think you could say that the developers of the AI have copyright over the initial code used to make that AI. I think that the outputs of some functional AI could be copyrightable by its developers, but I don't think any machine-learning AI would really qualify if it's the sole source of the work.

Personally, I think that the results of what an AI like Midjourney or ChatGPT creates would fall under public domain. Most of the time, it's removed enough from the source material that it's not really derivative anymore. However, I think if someone were to prompt one of these AI to create a work that explicitly mimics that of an author or artist, that could be infringement.

IANAL, this is just one random internet user's opinion.

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 4 points 11 months ago

This is true, and I'm not against "alternative" sources for ebooks (having used them myself), but it's always better for the libraries and authors if there's foot traffic to the libraries, since that drives tax dollars which in turn makes its way back to the authors. It's less than pennies on the dollar, but it's important.

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 8 points 11 months ago

I think it's important to provide children with a variety of potential careers ;)

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 7 points 11 months ago

Because everyone knows if a 14 year old reads Nora Roberts (or that one penguin children's book) society will fall apart.

[-] Syrup@lemmy.cafe 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Because everyone knows if a 17 year old reads Nora Roberts (or that one penguin children's book) society will fall apart.

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submitted 11 months ago by Syrup@lemmy.cafe to c/books@lemmy.ml

Despite the age of consent in Mississippi being 16, no one under the age of 18 will have access to digital materials made available through public and school libraries without explicit parental/guardian permission.

Mississippi has a new law on the books directly impacting access and use of digital resources like Hoopla and Overdrive for those under the age of 18 throughout the state. Even if granted parental permission, minors may not have materials available to them, if vendors do not ensure every item within their offerings meets the new, wide-reaching definition of “obscenity” per the state. Mississippi Code 39-3-25, part of House Bill 1315, went into effect July 1, 2023, and libraries across the state have scrambled for how to be in compliance.

19
submitted 1 year ago by Syrup@lemmy.cafe to c/books@lemmy.ml

I've been on a spy fiction kick recently- I really enjoyed the recent The Man from UNCLE movie and I Expect You to Die video game. I'm looking for some novels that are in a similar vein (classic 60s spy versus an egomaniac villain out to take over the world). However, I cannot stand the sexism in Ian Fleming's books. He's got good prose and worldbuilding, but it bugs me too much to enjoy the books.

Are there any recent spy novels that fall into this genre?

28

I don't know if the mods of /r/LearnJapanese planned on migrating their stuff over to a lemmy instance. They seem to be permanently private as of right now, so I just wanted to link to the internet archive of the subreddit's language learning resource list.

Keep in mind that the links on the internet archive lead to other archived sites. For example, archived google docs don't load properly, so after clicking on one, you will need to copy/paste the link into your address bar.

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Syrup

joined 1 year ago