A. Aiyeeee.

You might not know this, but I like A.I.  People who are contentious about it, it appears to me, are those who speak about it in terms that humanize.  A.I. is like a calculator with a bank of stored information.  It is amazing.  As I have said many times, I don't fear it, I fear the people who control it, the people who decide what it can and what it cannot share.  

"Information wants to be free!"

A.I. reveals the flaws in human conventions.  I read today that the number of "home grown" lawsuits by people using A.I. has begun to flood the courts.  I used ChatGPT to write some legal documents concerning the violation of my victim's rights per this state's statutes.  In seconds, I had three documents with the names and addresses of where they should be sent.  They were brief and succinct.  When I told my famous judge buddy, he winced.  We both knew what an attorney would have charged me to do the same thing.  He said the documents would be fine, but nothing would happen.  The State Prosecutors Office would never respond to the docs.  

I never sent them.  But it is bullshit that they let the guy who stole $22,000 worth of camera gear off the hook with probation without informing me of the hearing.  I had the option to get restitution from him.  It would never have happened, sure, but he would have been on probation until restitution was served.  

Selavy. 

I got lost there.  My point is that A.I. is showing up the flaws in our current legal system.  Everything is a lawsuit now.  Morgan and Morgan, et. al.  

The same goes for medicine.  In studies at Johns Hopkins, A.I. outperformed doctors a majority of the time in diagnosing patients.  A.I. isn't a doctor, it is a tool to be used by doctors.  

Want to make your own suitcase nuke?  Uh-oh.  Now we're running into trouble.  Who should control that bit of information?  Now, sure. . . we run into a dilemma.  But somebody knows how, just not you.  The information is there, though, and A.I. has it.  

The Pope. . . well you know what he just did.  He weighed in.  Here's the part that broke me up.  I took this straight from the N.Y. Times:

"With the heart of a shepherd and a father, I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good, so that humanity will never lose its beauty, and the world once again will come to recognize the human heart as the place where God desires to dwell" (Pope Leo).

The biblical story of the Tower of Babel recurs as a touchstone. The account appears in the Book of Genesis, and describes a world in which a unified human population that speaks only one language decides to build a tower “whose top reaches to the heavens” in order to exert its own power and domination.

In response, God scatters the people across the earth, in what serves as an origin story for the existence of different languages and cultures.

Leo uses the Tower of Babel as an illustration of the pitfalls of pursuing uniformity and standardization, and the limits of ambitious undertakings that appear able to compete with the claims of religion. As many aspects of global culture homogenize, and technology becomes a kind of universal language, Leo’s call for humility and diversity stands in contrast. It’s also a reminder that many of the seemingly new ethical and social challenges posed by A.I. have ancient roots (N.Y. Times).

Yea. . . O.K.  Uh. . . what?  Really?  

So. . . I can't get out to make pictures much anymore.  It bugs me, but I still like to fool around.  You might be aware.  As I've said, I've been making postcards and sitting down at my new desk and handwriting notes and mailing these to friends.  Each card and stamp costs me about a buck, and I have to drive to the post office to mail them because there are not public mail drops anymore.  I asked why, and the lady at the post office told me that people kept robbing them or putting "stuff" down the chutes of the boxes.  

The image at the top is one of the photos from my "A Few Days One Summer" surf series shot on the little toy Holga camera oh so long ago.  2009.  Wow.  I used A.I. to morph it into the postcard you see.  I've already printed some up and sent them out.  I hope you don't mind the image being morphed because you will probably see more of them here in lieu of the photographs I am not taking.  I would like to take the series up again, but I don't think people would pose for pictures anymore.  Things have radically changed.  People are more guarded and suspicious now.  I just read some statistics about children and teens not being allowed to leave their yards.  It is crazy.  The media, the article said, created a mania about kidnapped children using bad numbers.  The truth is that most of the missing children they reported were runaways, and that, in fact, there was an average of six child kidnappings per year.  

"I always took candy from strangers" (Keith Richards).

So, yea. . . I don't think I would be allowed to do that anymore.  OMWC syndrome.  

Still, I can recycle.  

I did try to make photos for a bit yesterday.  Drove around looking for any kind of MD celebration.  Found nothing.  The streets were dead.  I assumed everyone had gone to the beach.  So I stopped at Fresh Market and got fixings.  Gourmet hot dogs made by the butcher.  Blue cheese angus steer sirloin hamburgers.  Slaw and beans.  When I got to my mother's house and started to cook, though, I realized that the packaged hot dogs you buy at the store are pre-cooked.  Holy shit--I'd never cooked a raw dog before!  

I cooked them for a long time.  Hot dogs and hamburgers and beans and slaw and beer.  And watermelon.  

And not a picture to show.  

After dinner, my mother asked me, "Do you think that Californication show is on tonight?"

Holy shit!  What have I done?  I've corrupted my 94 year old mother.  She tells the neighbors about the show.  

It does make me laugh.  Something needs to.