Shevanel's recent activity
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Comment on What have you been putting off/procrastinating about doing? in ~life
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Comment on What's your favorite music album to get high to? in ~music
Shevanel Link ParentThe Mars Volta is a great recommendation because if you don’t like the idea of getting high to their early stuff, you’ll probably like getting high to their later stuff! I’m with you personally;...The Mars Volta is a great recommendation because if you don’t like the idea of getting high to their early stuff, you’ll probably like getting high to their later stuff!
I’m with you personally; love me some Deloused, and it was a formative album as a teenager and aspiring musician.
Edit: this is also me making sure you’re aware their new album just dropped a day or two ago!
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Comment on What do Audible narrators sound like? in ~books
Shevanel Link ParentI’m 100% with you. Fiction is told from the perspective of a variety of characters, and often an omniscient narrator. That narrator isn’t usually meant to be the author themselves, so it would...I’m 100% with you. Fiction is told from the perspective of a variety of characters, and often an omniscient narrator. That narrator isn’t usually meant to be the author themselves, so it would make sense to find someone to embody that story-teller’s perspective. On the other hand, non-fiction books are ostensibly the author speaking to their audience directly, so as long as the author isn’t a terrible speaker, it usually works out halfway decently. There are exceptions in either case, of course, but I usually don’t shy away from self-narrated NF.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Shevanel Link ParentOkay, I didn’t want to spoil it but the fourth biome coupled with the music is one of my top recent memories in gaming. Truly incredible stuff! Congrats on getting through 6! I don’t actually play...Okay, I didn’t want to spoil it but the fourth biome coupled with the music is one of my top recent memories in gaming. Truly incredible stuff! Congrats on getting through 6!
I don’t actually play a ton of roguelites in that vein so I don’t have many recommendations that would scratch the same itch. Hades and Enter the Gungeon are both phenomenal for example, and Hades is also very endearing and well written, but even so, neither of them pack the emotional punch that I so appreciated from Returnal. If you liked the moment to moment gameplay, CONTROL feels very similar with the added bonus that it’s easier IMO (and you feel more powerful).
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Shevanel Link ParentReally really enjoyed my time with Returnal. I agree that it took a while to click. But once I was through the first three biomes, I was hooked. Have you played much since finishing biome 3?Really really enjoyed my time with Returnal. I agree that it took a while to click. But once I was through the first three biomes, I was hooked. Have you played much since finishing biome 3?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Shevanel Link Parent/Noise, but what I wouldn’t give to play through Portal 2 and Celeste (and Farewell) for the first time again... Enjoy!/Noise, but what I wouldn’t give to play through Portal 2 and Celeste (and Farewell) for the first time again... Enjoy!
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Comment on The Tiny Soapbox: a platform for small, low-stakes rants in ~talk
Shevanel LinkThis is pretty US-centric, specifically for those states in the parts of the country where it snows, but even so, I think we ought to swap the dates on which Valentine’s Day and Christmas occur....This is pretty US-centric, specifically for those states in the parts of the country where it snows, but even so, I think we ought to swap the dates on which Valentine’s Day and Christmas occur.
- Preamble / negation of a potential counter-argument: The dates of both are totally arbitrary as-is
- Christmas occurs way too early into the season. All this buildup and then two full months of shitty weather with nothing to look forward to
- in a similar vein, Christmas lights / decorations start coming down right as winter gets into gear and we start really seeing consistent snow (in most of the areas that get snow). Seeing a bunch of Christmas lights when the snow isn’t even consistent kind of sucks, plus then we just have months of snow and shitty weather with no lights or festivity surrounding it
- Christmas timing is competing with Thanksgiving (in the US) and New Year’s, and it’s a total cluster of holidays
If we swapped these two holidays, Christmas would get a wide-open runway all the way from January 1 to February 14 with nothing else in the immediate area competing with it. Thanksgiving (US) and New Year’s would get far more attention and could be celebrated more fully. Plus, the end of Christmas almost coincides with the end of winter, so it feels a lot more celebratory in that way.
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Comment on Second measles death reported in Texas in ~health
Shevanel LinkFor any fellow new parents out there, I want to emphasize the last sentence in the article: Our little one just had his 6-month appointment and the ped was more than willing to offer the MMR...For any fellow new parents out there, I want to emphasize the last sentence in the article:
During an outbreak, however, babies as young as 6 months old can get the first shot.
Our little one just had his 6-month appointment and the ped was more than willing to offer the MMR vaccine at that time, especially because my wife’s job has her traveling near Texas on occasion (we live in a state that doesn’t have any positive cases at the moment).
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel Link ParentI really appreciate the response on this! I’ve been spending too much time on this thread over the last couple days so I’m gonna bow out, but I think you bring up excellent points. I wish it...I really appreciate the response on this! I’ve been spending too much time on this thread over the last couple days so I’m gonna bow out, but I think you bring up excellent points. I wish it didn’t paint such a bleak picture but I think we’re all in agreement that we’re due for a sea change.
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel (edited )Link ParentI get what you’re saying. The reason that art is set apart in my mind is because, if AI does a bad job replacing tech for the time being, there are usually enough safeguards in place, or fixes...I get what you’re saying. The reason that art is set apart in my mind is because, if AI does a bad job replacing tech for the time being, there are usually enough safeguards in place, or fixes that are rolled back by actual experts in the field. If AI art does a bad job at replacing traditional art, oh well, art is just generally more mediocre now. We were already on a downward curve thanks to capitalism sinking its fingers into all forms of media, and now AI slop has art in a downward spiral. And since we tend to prefer convenience over quality as consumers of media, we accept it all at face value.
I hope I’m just being cynical, I really do, because you’re right, the cat’s out of the bag and there’s nothing stopping that.
Edit: here’s an old post of mine that goes into greater detail on my thoughts above; I didn’t mean to come across as short or vague but I’ve spent several hours responding to comments in here since yesterday and I’m starting to repeat myself so I’m stepping away from it. Appreciate the discourse up till now!
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel Link ParentI fundamentally agree with what you’re saying, but the cynic in me says that capitalism isn’t going to be toppled in our lifetime. I suppose I’m just more interested in mitigating the damage it...I fundamentally agree with what you’re saying, but the cynic in me says that capitalism isn’t going to be toppled in our lifetime. I suppose I’m just more interested in mitigating the damage it has done (and will do) in the meantime than I am in trying to sort it out. I have friends and family in the arts who are below the poverty line, and me telling them that I disagree with capitalism as a concept doesn’t help them get paid any more for their gigs. And yeah, I acknowledge that it’s short-sighted of me to fight the symptom, as you aptly put it, but I guess I don’t want to make the good (helping those in the current system) the enemy of the perfect (changing the system).
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel Link ParentWell put. At the end of the day, I wish there was a more effective means to protect the individual / smaller collectives in these cases, and I fear the protections in place, while perhaps better...Well put. At the end of the day, I wish there was a more effective means to protect the individual / smaller collectives in these cases, and I fear the protections in place, while perhaps better than nothing, are not as effective as one would hope for that level of creator. Which is a shame, as it’s one of the few spaces where we’ll continue to see innovation. Meanwhile, all other forms of “creativity” continue to spiral towards the most profitable lowest common denominator. I hope that’s just me being pessimistic but I really do worry about the state of things moving forward, and AI “art,” however it happens to factor into the bigger picture, is just throwing kerosene on whatever this fire is.
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel Link ParentIn practice, do we know if that’s true from individual to individual? I understand that a small creator is likely going to lose to a corporation no matter what. But why strip those protections...In practice, do we know if that’s true from individual to individual? I understand that a small creator is likely going to lose to a corporation no matter what. But why strip those protections away if they might help when the situation is between two individuals (or small companies)?
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel Link ParentPragmatically speaking, you’re probably right about what the future looks like. Doesn’t mean I need to like it, though :) That said, it’s a bit of a bastardization of Picasso’s quote, if you ask...Pragmatically speaking, you’re probably right about what the future looks like. Doesn’t mean I need to like it, though :)
That said, it’s a bit of a bastardization of Picasso’s quote, if you ask me. I don’t think the man had gen AI on his mind when he said this. I don’t think he could have envisioned anything even close to such a thing. First off, not to be too reductive, but to suggest that gen AI engines, or the folks feeding prompts into them, are “great artists” is a non-starter in the first place, but I won’t dwell on that since it kills the discourse before it begins, and that’s no fun! I’ll instead humor the concept and discuss its merits.
Don’t get me wrong - as a jazz musician, I love and appreciate the spirit of that quote. We steal all the time! Part of my formal education was to learn how to listen to, transcribe, and whole-cloth lift entire musical quotes from other musicians. The reason behind this is that humans can take these quotes and expand upon them—synthesize and build upon the ideas contained within them and generate truly novel ideas from them. The natural ideation and development on pre-existing ideas is the foundation of jazz music. Being good at this means understanding jazz at its core.
Hearing somebody play a solo over a well-known jazz tune from the American songbook wherein they quote a well-known lick from another musician who has soloed on that tune in the past (or a separate song that might have the same harmonic form, or even something more obtuse like the song is in the same key, or the song titles are similar and the musician transposes the lick to a different key - there are no hard rules here, I’m just giving examples), and then builds on that idea to create a new improvised solo on the fly means that the musician doing so is well-studied and well-listened, appreciates the historical context of the song they are performing, and is comfortable generating ideas live from said quotes. In this case, this is a brilliant artistic showing from a human, and I would argue that it’s the type of “stealing” to which Picasso was referring.
At a macro level, one can argue that this is how nearly all new thought is generated. Standing on the shoulders of giants, and what have you.
AI’s usage of stealing in this way is less “jazz” and more “ransom note made out of magazine clippings.” It can’t create genuinely new works out of what it learns, it just chops and screws what it’s found and mixes it up a bit. There’s rarely any sort of artistic nuance there. The inspiration isn’t just worn on the sleeve; it’s what the whole shirt is made out of, and the work always feels reductive because of it. If we want to tie it back to music, it’s the difference between a group of brilliant musicians inspired by a pre-existing artist and building on their formula, vs. a really strong cover band. There’s a time and a place for cover bands, and they aren’t inherently a bad or low-quality thing. But they lack the cultural weight of an ensemble putting out new music, regardless the influence they draw from earlier groups.
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel Link ParentI respect the distinction, but if we’re splitting hairs at that level, we’re probably letting the bastards in this equation win, so to speak. If I’m a small, independent creator and I put out a...I respect the distinction, but if we’re splitting hairs at that level, we’re probably letting the bastards in this equation win, so to speak.
If I’m a small, independent creator and I put out a product in the hopes that it will help me make a living, and somebody takes my creation out from underneath me and earns something from it, ostensibly taking away some of my potential earnings from said product, I don’t really care too much about if it’s legal for them to do it, it still didn’t put any bread on the table.
On the flip side, maybe this means we can yoink some ideas from Disney, make a buck off it, and get away with it, but we both know that the lawyers behind the Mouse (and others at that level) are litigious enough that the former situation is much more likely than the latter.
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel Link ParentI’m very torn on your statement. I get the general gist of it, but the reality (for the foreseeable future) is that society is largely based on capitalism, so folks who create to literally survive...I’m very torn on your statement. I get the general gist of it, but the reality (for the foreseeable future) is that society is largely based on capitalism, so folks who create to literally survive paycheck to paycheck ( /gig to gig) are being actively harmed by this theft. So yeah, on one side, I agree that co-opting ideas from too-big-to-fail IP behemoths like Disney is fine, and that the law works too well in their favor. But to give AI a blank check to steal from all creators and hope that it’ll just work out for little guys in the long run because society will suddenly stop being driven by capitalism? I fear it’s a pipe dream.
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Comment on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip in ~tech
Shevanel LinkThe exercise was interesting enough, but I really don’t understand the message the author was trying to get across. His closing thoughts: Okay, so, what exactly are we getting at here? Stealing is...The exercise was interesting enough, but I really don’t understand the message the author was trying to get across. His closing thoughts:
It’s a reminder that LLMs of this type and size all train on copywritten material.
It’s stealing, but also, admittedly, really cool.
Does the growth of AI have to bring with it the tacit or even explicit encouragement of intellectual theft?
To co-opt a line from the “super strong man with a sword that fights an enemy with skeleton face who lives in a skeleton castle.”:
You have the power.
Don’t slow down.
Okay, so, what exactly are we getting at here? Stealing is cool, and we should keep doing it?
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Comment on Poshmark (online used goods store) - Good, bad, invite code? in ~life
Shevanel LinkMy wife and I both enjoy it, but it’s always a coin flip on whether you’ll have to do what we refer to as “Paying the Poshmark Tax,” aka washing the musty basement smell out of whatever clothing...My wife and I both enjoy it, but it’s always a coin flip on whether you’ll have to do what we refer to as “Paying the Poshmark Tax,” aka washing the musty basement smell out of whatever clothing you buy. We tend to notice it more with women’s and children’s clothing since I think there are more proper “sellers” of those items trying to store and move a lot of product in that space. I’ve bought a couple of men’s hoodies and one pair of shoes, and they may have well come straight from a store - they were mint condition.
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Comment on Igorrr - ADHD (2025) in ~music
Shevanel Link ParentI hear you, and I think the cynicism is warranted. At this point I almost view it like programmed drums in metal music. This is a very niche tangential complaint so it won’t land with most, but I...I hear you, and I think the cynicism is warranted.
At this point I almost view it like programmed drums in metal music. This is a very niche tangential complaint so it won’t land with most, but I can almost always tell when drums are programmed in an album (vs. recorded live), and it happens a lot more in metal music, likely due to the general dynamic stagnation and consistency of the parts vs other genres. I don’t like when groups do it, but I acknowledge that for many, the cost, talent, and time factors are insurmountable, so they turned towards canned drums as a solution. That said, when these groups take their act on tour, I sincerely hope they pony up the cash to hire a drummer that can play their parts. And if they wrote impossible parts and/or refuse to shell out for a drummer who can hang, they have to sleep in the shitty bed they made. Same goes for groups who simply write terrible drum parts because they don’t get any feedback from their auto-drummer. They need to be prepared to be criticized for their poor use of a musical shortcut.
I hope groups that use canned drums do record with live drums in the future, as they find the time or funds, or simply come to the realization that the active collaboration far outweighs the perceived benefits of a canned drummer.
In the same vein(s), I’m going to be disappointed if, for example, the video producer that Igorrr uses continues to only use an AI palette moving forward, and I think it would lead to creative bankruptcy pretty quickly. But if it’s a single item in a larger toolbelt? It’s a pill I can swallow every so often if used in the hands of folks who know what they’re doing. We’re never going to wish this medium away, but I hope we can strictly relegate it to the category of “fortifying pre-existing art” vs. “Acting like it can replace artists whole-cloth.”
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Comment on Igorrr - ADHD (2025) in ~music
Shevanel Link ParentAppreciate your thoughts! I totally hear you, and deep down I feel much the same way as you do. The entire medium is built on an impossibly large mountain of intellectual property theft, and by...Appreciate your thoughts! I totally hear you, and deep down I feel much the same way as you do. The entire medium is built on an impossibly large mountain of intellectual property theft, and by its very nature the art in and of itself (without outside intervention after its creation) is going to remain reductive and shallow. Yet at this point, I’ve accepted that we’re not going to get rid of it, so I’ve moved on to, “okay, so how do we acknowledge and contain it so it doesn’t just drown out everything else?”
Your last paragraph hits on a great point. It’s akin to that idea of people being shocked that a live band wants to charge $500/hr to play at their event. You’re not paying them for the x hours that they’re at the event. You’re paying them for the tens of thousands of hours that went into their craft for them to be able to show up to an event and play music at that level. The same goes for visual artists, of course; I just lack the familiarity with that skillset to be able to speak to it in the same way.
Also:
if the users posting slop were required to stop until they became more capable and thoughtful, […] they’d simply stop using AI altogether
You say this like it’s a bad thing ;)
I can’t tell you how often I sternly say “I love it!” a la Frank Drebin out loud to my wife when discussing any old inane thing I enjoy. It’s lovely to see a kindred spirit out here.