10 - Daily Report, Artificial Intelligence, More on Beer, and What's Better than Chocolate?

Daily Report

I can officially say spring is going strong here at Adams Pond. Sandy and I traveled to Home Depot this morning for the first salvo. Flowers and plants have been purchased along with potting soil. She cleaned up the area around the garden so there is easier access to things, and I helped out by bringing zip ties and helping her move some benches. There's a lot to be done, but it was a good start. The waterfall is running, and it appears there may be a small leak, but it's negligible at this point. We'll see how it goes as time progresses.

Artificial Intelligence

I'm a science fiction fan and writer. In science fiction, artificial intelligence is almost always a bad thing. From the Forbin Project to The Terminator, super-powerful computer intelligences either try to take over the world or they try to destroy humanity and replace it with "perfection." Exceptions include Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation and C3PO in Star Wars. Decades ago, Isaac Asimov created the Three Rules of Robotics to deal with this. If you saw the movie "I Robot", you saw how well that worked out, though the three rules have since become a given in AI development.

Lately, AI has been responsible for the creation of "deep fakes." Basically, deep fakes aren't real people in videos or photographs, but they LOOK real. They hit the news recently when a lot showed up prior to Donald Trump's arraignment in New York City. Today there was a headline about deep fake pornography. Sigh...

One area I've found useful, however, is I now have the ability to use AI technology to create images of the characters in the stories I'm writing. If you're a writer or know one, you may wish to refer them to a website named ARTFLOW. Use Google for the link. ArtFlow AI allows me to describe a person or a place, and the AI then provides four different takes on it. I can choose one or create more. The picture that follows is an example of one I created a few minutes before writing this. All I wrote was "man standing on a balcony overlooking a futuristic city." They haven't started charging yet, but I did a ZOOM session with one of the creators a while back and supported usage fees. Normally I'm fairly cheap about things, but this is extremely easy to use and useful at the same time.

More on Beer

After the attack on Bud Light for endorsing the LGBTQ+ and the subsequent attempts to retract those attacks when the GOP realized that Anhauser Busch was a major contributer, there's a new video out featuring the famed Clydesdale horses. They are amazing horses (I've visited the farm they're kept at in the St. Louis area), and the commercial is pretty good. Not good enough to get me to drink beer, but good enough to watch a couple of times.

 What's Better than Chocolate? 

If you know me, you'll realize that's a question with just one answer. "Nothing." I love chocolate. I also believe white chocolate is an evil plot, but that's beside the point. Just hitting the news is chocolate has a new and quite intriguing competitor.

Marijuana.

Yep. The stigma against marijuana is beginning to fade away, and it's becoming more and more accessible. Laws that have been on the books for decades are being dashed to the rocks as new ones allowing people to obtain it are being made. It's not universally okay everywhere, but I suspect that day is coming. 

I'll stick with my chocolate. I prefer Hershey's. Milk chocolate or dark are equally fine.

That's enough for today.

Take care and stay safe.

cma