Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Zed Clampet]

Welp, my favorite street in town is going to be destroyed. They've approved knocking everything down and putting in a bunch of14 to 20 story apartment buildings lining both sides of the road. They are going to be mixed use with commercial space on the bottom floors, kind of like downtown, but the character of the area is going to completely change. It had a sort of Route 66 feel to it.

But the cost of housing has basically tripled here since the beginning of Covid, so I guess there's too much money to be made to worry about character.

 

[ipman]

There are a lot of questions that arise, though. If machines run everything, then why do we even need to get a better education? Right now, there are 7.8 billion people in the world. By the time this transition is over, there will be more. If machines take over all of the jobs, then how will all of those people earn a living? How will things be paid for? If you're just going to dole out money to everyone without them having to do anything for it, who is going to be in charge of doling the money out? I know I sure don't trust the government to do that. And that brings up another thought, why would anyone want to work for the government when everyone else gets a paycheck for doing nothing? Why would anyone be motivated to run the government? And if there were people who were motivated to do that, it could only be for power. Would you trust people who are only doing it for the power to run your entire life, and to run the entire economy?

Or maybe the government is run by AI, too. People might think a computer would be more impartial. But the only way a computer could run a government would be if its AI is so advanced that it could have highly intelligent thought processes and make choices and decisions. An AI that advanced would have to be self-aware. Would that kind of AI look at humans as being vastly inferior? If so, what kind of bigoted decisions might it make when directing how our "Utopian" lives might be run? If things actually go that way, it will not turn out to be good for humans.

Plus, even if it did, you should watch the movie WALL-E, if you haven't seen it. Humans would end up becoming weak, obese people, who can't even stand up without falling over, and if anything ever happened to all of that tech, we wouldn't be able to survive on our own.

Forget all that @WoodenSaucer >forum name, how or why?

I was thinking that some games do use the old world order. So in Skyrim you play as a sort of mercenary affiliated to various kings and queens, same with Shadow of War, add your own.

But In Watchdogs series you play as a radical trying to bring down the old world order. Both are fun.

 

[mainer]

Welp, my favorite street in town is going to be destroyed. They've approved knocking everything down and putting in a bunch of14 to 20 story apartment buildings lining both sides of the road. They are going to be mixed use with commercial space on the bottom floors, kind of like downtown, but the character of the area is going to completely change. It had a sort of Route 66 feel to it.

But the cost of housing has basically tripled here since the beginning of Covid, so I guess there's too much money to be made to worry about character.

The same BS is happening here in Portland. The waterfront & "Old Port" districts are transforming from the cool and historical areas of cobblestone streets, unique shops and houses into "chain" stores, "luxury" condos, and "evil" banks. Brutal rent and/or property tax increases are forcing people to move away, while our infantile, (redacted)-plug city council continues to approve these new projects. It's becoming a corporate playground for the wealthy.

 

[ipman]

I have picked up a few sayings, 'when everyone is thinking the same way, it shows that no one is thinking'. That's why I think we need better education, not only self organised education but encouraging people to think for themselves. Also 'to really understand something, we need to look at it from as many perspectives as possible', which often means holding multiple contrary view points simultaneously.

I think quite a few countries are experimenting with Universal basic incomes, but I think if companies can cut out labour costs then they should be taxed at a higher rate to cover part of that basic income. Also companies that are using cheap(after initial outlay) robot labour are less likely to relocate to other countries. Which is good for host countries, products are made locally, good for the environment and means we aren't subject to the whims of nations that go rogue.

I think AI could do a lot better and make better decisions than many in governments.

AI systems wouldn't need to be 'self aware' to run systems. This whole idea that AI systems will consider humans 'as inferior' is a misconception. It's all part of that sci fi dysopian vision that even some tech entrepreneurs have been perpetuating. AI is just another tool that will make humans life easier and extend our potential.

I wonder how much potential human intelligence is wasted because many in the world don't receive a good level of education or didn't have access to books, (thankfully the Web is changing that), or because the power to implement new ideas is kept within the hands of the few.

I'm sure there must be many examples of people who were genius level but had little formal learning, maybe taught themselves, but given a chance excelled, from Srinivasa Ramanujan to Einstein. 'Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of minds to think'.(E)

I think along with this restructuring of human society we need to restructure how we use our minds, how we utilise the intelligence of all humans, and how we view ourselves.

I often think that gaming changes the way we see ourselves. We become virtual heros, we believe we can solve any problem, puzzle, challenge, etc and mentally we become more proactive. So we just need to believe in ourselves and transfer that to the real world and ignore the doubters and cynics.(rant over time for some gaming🙂)

 

[Zed Clampet]

I have picked up a few sayings, 'when everyone is thinking the same way, it shows that no one is thinking'. That's why I think we need better education, not only self organised education but encouraging people to think for themselves. Also 'to really understand something, we need to look at it from as many perspectives as possible', which often means holding multiple contrary view points simultaneously.

I think quite a few countries are experimenting with Universal basic incomes, but I think if companies can cut out labour costs then they should be taxed at a higher rate to cover part of that basic income. Also companies that are using cheap(after initial outlay) robot labour are less likely to relocate to other countries. Which is good for host countries, products are made locally, good for the environment and means we aren't subject to the whims of nations that go rogue.

I think AI could do a lot better and make better decisions than many in governments.

AI systems wouldn't need to be 'self aware' to run systems. This whole idea that AI systems will consider humans 'as inferior' is a misconception. It's all part of that sci fi dysopian vision that even some tech entrepreneurs have been perpetuating. AI is just another tool that will make humans life easier and extend our potential.

I wonder how much potential human intelligence is wasted because many in the world don't receive a good level of education or didn't have access to books, (thankfully the Web is changing that), or because the power to implement new ideas is kept within the hands of the few.

I'm sure there must be many examples of people who were genius level but had little formal learning, maybe taught themselves, but given a chance excelled, from Srinivasa Ramanujan to Einstein. 'Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of minds to think'.(E)

I think along with this restructuring of human society we need to restructure how we use our minds, how we utilise the intelligence of all humans, and how we view ourselves.

I often think that gaming changes the way we see ourselves. We become virtual heros, we believe we can solve any problem, puzzle, challenge, etc and mentally we become more proactive. So we just need to believe in ourselves and transfer that to the real world and ignore the doubters and cynics.(rant over time for some gaming🙂)

“If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking,” George S. Patton.

That's basically been my motto my entire life. Be forewarned, people don't like you as much when you think for yourself.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Is anyone curious about face-swap AI? We've been talking a lot about AI, and I've been experimenting with it. If anyone is interested I could post my latest results and talk about what went into getting those results.

Don't just humor me. If you aren't actually interested, it's better for me to know that than to spend a lot of time on something no one could care less about.

 

[Zloth]

What's face swapping AI? Swapping out just the face of somebody onto somebody else?

Here's a little story AI. Plenty slow, but it shows some potential.

View: https://youtu.be/akceKOLtytw

 

[Zed Clampet]

What's face swapping AI? Swapping out just the face of somebody onto somebody else?

View: https://youtu.be/akceKOLtytw

Yep. It's being used right now to put Bruce Willis back into commercials and movies. People are putting themselves and their family members into movie scenes, and controversially, it's also being used in some less wholesome ways, like putting famous actors in adult movies. This latter use has already been banned by a number of states. But the Bruce Willis thing is pretty cool. They showed a commercial with him in it as an example.

Experimenting with it, it seems to be still in the early stages, but I'm using one that is open source and free for anyone. Commercial ones are probably better, I'm guessing.

 

[Zloth]

So not just face - I was wondering how that could be done without looking freaky!

 

[Zed Clampet]

So not just face - I was wondering how that could be done without looking freaky!

Sorry. It's just the face. Didn't mean to be unclear. In fact, if you want to do it correctly, the best thing to do is to find someone whose head size and shape are a close match. So you would look for that if you were casting a movie and going to replace the actor with Bruce Willis because the AI is going to redraw Willis' face on the new actor's head. So the body would be nearly as important, finding someone who was built like Willis to complete the illusion.

 

[Pifanjr]

Yep. It's being used right now to put Bruce Willis back into commercials and movies. People are putting themselves and their family members into movie scenes, and controversially, it's also being used in some less wholesome ways, like putting famous actors in adult movies. This latter use has already been banned by a number of states. But the Bruce Willis thing is pretty cool. They showed a commercial with him in it as an example.

Experimenting with it, it seems to be still in the early stages, but I'm using one that is open source and free for anyone. Commercial ones are probably better, I'm guessing.

It's been used several times in the modern Star Wars movies and series as well. It still looks a bit off, but it's already quite impressive. There's also apps that let you animate a picture of a face, which probably uses some of the techniques of the face swap tech as well.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Sorry. It's just the face. Didn't mean to be unclear. In fact, if you want to do it correctly, the best thing to do is to find someone whose head size and shape are a close match. So you would look for that if you were casting a movie and going to replace the actor with Bruce Willis because the AI is going to redraw Willis' face on the new actor's head. So the body would be nearly as important, finding someone who was built like Willis to complete the illusion.

It's really, really limited, which is frustrating. Using the Willis example, if your new actor makes a facial expression that you don't have Willis making, the AI isn't even going to try to draw Willis's face with the new expression. It's just going to draw the nearest expression that it has a picture of. There actually are training models that will try to make the new expression, but they aren't any good. You probably wouldn't recognize Willis if you saw a still image of that expression. So in the end, the best training models just stick almost pixel to pixel to an image they have in their source file.

I was putting my wife's face on someone I found on Adobe Stock, and I spent a lot of time in Photoshop painting new expressions on her pictures to try to get the AI to use those. Sometimes I got lazy and tried to copy and paste parts of the Adobe model's face onto my wife's picture, but she usually would become immediately unrecognizable. Even if all I did was copy the underside of the Adobe model's nostrils, it would completely ruin the recognizability. Actually, that part was kind of fascinating. The mouth you could move over and be relatively okay with. Other things you might not think were important would completely destroy my ability to recognize my own wife.

And I consciously noticed things about my wife that I'd never noticed before. I told her she had anime eyes because they were flat across the bottom and rounded across the top haha.

 

[Zloth]

So, if I could make a face like Arnold Schwarzenegger....

 

[WoodenSaucer]

So, if I could make a face like Arnold Schwarzenegger....

Haha. That reminds me of this woman who looks just like Jim Carrey. It's uncanny.

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.

www.youtube.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

You know that BS about if you give, you get more back in return? That some mystical universe fairy says, "Ah, what a nice person, have a sack of Little Debbies!" It's all garbage. It's trash. It's hooey. The truth is the absolute opposite. When you give, you are expected to give more and more.

I started doing work for a children's literacy charity late last summer. Fast forward to the new year, and I now sit on the Board of Directors and also the Finance Committee. If the fact that I now have to go to meetings twice a month for the next 3 years when all I want to do is get fat and fall over like the people in @WoodenSaucer 's movie WALL-E isn't bad enough, I was talking to the director this morning, and the following is as close to the relevant portion of our conversation as I can make it.

Ten minutes of conversation during which I must have missed something very important. Then:

Her: "I was thinking that instead of doing a story call-in number that we could do a monthly letter box. Those are popular. We do a story in 12 letters and the kids get one letter each month for a year."

Me: "That's a great idea. They'd have to read instead of just listening. Those letter subscriptions are very popular right now."

Her: "So you wouldn't mind?"

Me: "No, why would I mind?"

Her: "It wouldn't be that much work. We'll handle the mail from here...."

She keeps talking while I try to run the conversation over again in my head.

Me: "Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt. I'm a little confused. Are you wanting me to write the story?"

Her: "Yeah, you don't mind?"

Me: "No, not at all." Curse words stream through my head.

I guess if you run a charity you have to become adept at the trickery that traps mentally challenged, gullible folks who can't say "no" (me) into as much free labor as possible. That's alright. Time to start working on my 12 part masterpiece, "Sexy Nurse Brothel". The kids will love that.

 

[Zloth]

That's alright. Time to start working on my 12 part masterpiece, "Sexy Nurse Brothel". The kids will love that.

Send it back to 3-year-old-me, I'll love it.

When I was 3, I found a Playboy magazine and my mom found me reading it, laughing my head off. Not only did some people managed to take pictures of these ladies with no clothes on, but they also published them in a magazine so everybody could see! Absolutely hilarious!

 

[ipman]

Couple of randoms from this week, a cartoon from 1923 by H.T. Webster.

I'm sure you've heard of the Australian Cane toad problem, introduced to eat beetles, but if eaten by many predators, poisons them. It has been slowly moving across the whole country and evolving as it goes. It's legs have been growing longer and longer so it can move faster as it travels South West, and now they've found a
2.7 Kg one, nicknamed 'Toadzilla'.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Couple of randoms from this week, a cartoon from 1923 by H.T. Webster.

I'm sure you've heard of the Australian Cane toad problem, introduced to eat beetles, but if eaten by many predators, poisons them. It has been slowly moving across the whole country and evolving as it goes. It's legs have been growing longer and longer so it can move faster as it travels South West, and now they've found a
2.7 Kg one, nicknamed 'Toadzilla'.

Maybe they'll eventually get big enough to eat the rabbits.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Send it back to 3-year-old-me, I'll love it.

I'm not doing anything else with these letters. I'm not printing thousands of letters each month. I'm not having thousands of letters printed for me. I'm not putting so much as a single letter in an envelope. And I'm not using a time machine to get porn to the children of yesteryear.

 

[ipman]

Maybe they'll eventually get big enough to eat the rabbits.

They did say that a Cane Toad will eat whatever it can fit in it's mouth, so you might be right.

I found it interesting that toads are evolving so quickly. Also the whole invasive species issue, like those Asian Carp that were introduced into American lakes and rivers to eat algae, that all leap out when a boat goes by and are now getting close to the Great Lakes

 

[ipman]

Send it back to 3-year-old-me, I'll love it.

When I was 3, I found a Playboy magazine and my mom found me reading it, laughing my head off. Not only did some people managed to take pictures of these ladies with no clothes on, but they also published them in a magazine so everybody could see! Absolutely hilarious!

Your story reminded me of this Family Guy episode. When the series first started some parents here just thought it was another childrens cartoon and would just dump them in front of TV.
But it's a witty, satirical and sometimes dark look at modern life, and soon their children were coming out with all sorts of stuff.

Stewie discovers Hustler magazine

 

[Zed Clampet]

They did say that a Cane Toad will eat whatever it can fit in it's mouth, so you might be right.

I found it interesting that toads are evolving so quickly. Also the whole invasive species issue, like those Asian Carp that were introduced into American lakes and rivers to eat algae, that all leap out when a boat goes by and are now getting close to the Great Lakes

They're bad. They actually weren't introduced into lakes and rivers, though. They were used in water treatment plants and fish farms. Somehow a few escaped into the river, and things went south from there.

We still haven't learned not to meddle. We're still bringing things over.

 

[ipman]

They're bad. They actually weren't introduced into lakes and rivers, though. They were used in water treatment plants and fish farms. Somehow a few escaped into the river, and things went south from there.

We still haven't learned not to meddle. We're still bringing things over.

Oh yes I remember that part of the story now. I have watched many River Monsters episodes, although that might have been his Mighty Rivers series. I think sometimes species spread naturally, but it's often humans trying to solve one problem and not respecting the ecosystem.

 

[mainer]

When I was 3, I found a Playboy magazine and my mom found me reading it,

You can actually remember back when you were 3 years old? I have difficulty remembering anything before my grade school years, though there are early bits & pieces floating around in my mind that I can't put a timeline to.

 

[Zloth]

You can actually remember back when you were 3 years old?

Only very vaguely, but it gets brought up at family gatherings every few years.