So, this blog is a fucking mess where I throw in whatever I wanna say when I have no one to say it to. However, in case anyone actually feels like following me, here is some info about me, topics I may regularly post about, and More™
BASIC INFO
- You can call me Icarus here. For privacy reasons I don’t wanna share my real name publicly anymore (though some people who followed me before may already know it)
- I’m an adult bisexual trans man from Latin America. I use he/him pronouns only
- Aside from English, I also speak Portuguese and Japanese. Might post in those languages if I feel like it
- I’m currently studying Animation at university. I also dabble in graphic design and wanna get into front-end web dev and game dev in the near future
- I have diagnosed ADHD and mental illnesses. If nothing here makes any sense, that might be why
MAIN INTERESTS
My interests change quite frequently, so this list is by no means exaustive, but those are some of the things I’ve been interested long enough that I’m likely to still be interested on in the future
- Anime and cartoon
- Favorites include Inazuma Eleven, Naruto, Madoka Magica, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Death Note, Yuri on Ice, Akuma no Riddle, and others
- Video games
- Favorites include Hollow Knight, OneShot, Vampire Survivors, Bloons TD6, Terraria, Minecraft, Undertale/Deltarune, and several visual novels from itch.io
- Bullet journaling, planning and organization
- Language learning/Langblr
- Vocaloid, particularly Evillious Chronicles
- Art, design and animation, obviously
- LGBT+ topics, particularly trans men’s and transmasc issues
- And More™
WARNINGS (?)
- I use transandrophobia to describe experiences of oppression that target trans men and transmascs, and I’m not open to discussion about that if you’re not a trans man or transmasc yourself
- I will be annoying about people who think the USA and the North American experience is the standard. If you don’t like that, maybe consider the fact that there are over 200 countries in the world
- If you’re an ass on my blog, I will block you. I have a life of my own and very limited patience to waste with weirdos online
- That also includes discourse. Unless it’s of personal importance to me, I usually prefer not to engage
- I might disappear from here every once in a while and come back months later like nothing happened. Don’t mind that
I’m thinking, maybe AI “art” wouldn’t be so much of a problem if it were more like Vocaloid
And yes, I’m dead serious. Think about it with me
What do AI image generators do? They collect bits and pieces of images from a database to automatically formulate a complete new image the same way an artist would create a piece, right?
Well, Vocaloid is essentially bits and pieces of a voice database, strung together to create a song, sentence or dialogue the same way a human would sing or speak
What’s the main difference between those two, and why I see a problem with generative image AI, but not with Vocaloid? The voices that form Vocaloid (and similar) voicebanks are willingly provided by individual human singers who signed up and gave consent for it, and the voice is sufficiently modified so that it is distinguishable from a human singer (i.e. human singers are in no threat to be put out of business because of the existence of Vocaloid)
My main problem with AI image generation is that it doesn’t ethically source the art from which it strings together the new images. It would be the equivalent of taking any person’s voice available online (let’s say, from YouTube), and using those sounds to make anything you want, whether it be using their voice to “sing”, or to say things they’d never say. And that would be shit, right? Your voice isn’t free for use by anyone
A person’s art is just as private and intimate as their voice, if not more, and no more ethical to steal. If proponents of AI want artists to stop complaining about it, they have to start addressing the real ethical problems behind it
gatheringbones:
gatheringbones:
I love reading a book you are slightly too stupid for
ways to keep reading despite feeling stupid because the tags you all keep adding have made me realize that my post is being used to self harm:
- recognize that stupidity is a cultural concept leveraged against stigmatized populations who operate from devalued spheres of intelligence
- notice feelings of panic and shame and frustration rising in your body when you encounter a difficult text, react to them like a loving friend who thinks you deserve to learn things
- recognize the conditioning it takes to convince someone they are too stupid to deserve to learn things
- go back and read a difficult text whose meaning and nuances escaped you the first time around after you read two or three more and the first one has had time to cook in your brain
- open your brain’s mouth like a whale shark and cruise through the water digesting anything that gets caught in your filter plates
(via lightgaze)
evilwizard:
chromegnomes:
evilwizard:
chromegnomes:
evilwizard:
*sidles up to you at the bar* would you like to hear my wise aphorism
only if it’s actually wise. the last guy who asked me this had a pretty foolish aphorism tbh
oh… uhuh… *really should have prepared this ahead of time* never ignore… the melody of time… when your shoe’s untied?
*considers this aphorism sagely, sipping my horrible and bitter potion*
yes. there is wisdom in this. he whose shoes are untied must carefully mind the rhythm of his steps. bartender, another Wretched Potion, for my comrade here
*to self* holy shit… my aphorism… it’s wise!
quburt:
This pride month I’m inviting everyone to partake in a challenge called “Stop Being Werid about Transmascs”
aropride:
saw a tweet the other day that was like “outlawing diy hrt would kill trans people” which, yes, i agree. however it is already illegal for trans men. which is something i feel like people just ignore in discussions about diyhrt. i’ve also seen tweets along the lines of “it’s easy to access and dose and it’s not explicitly illegal so if you’re concerned about us anti trans laws you’re being stupid”. which, the first part is completely untrue when it comes to testosterone, and the second part shows a mindblowingly uncompassionate view on anti trans legislation and is a genuinely bafflingly horrible thing to say to people who are scared for their lives and their futures
