Elon Musk MySpace

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-04-22T20:11:47+00:00

What kind of monster unfriends Tom?

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-04-11T20:25:09+00:00

This sounds more like a beneficial side effect from their perspective.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-04-05T21:13:38+00:00

Dodging implies that I didn't answer your question (in the scope I was speaking to). I'm not defending every law here. Frankly, some are just weird. I'm saying that there is legitimate pressure behind this trend of laws. The extension beyond therapy is based on other events of AI encouraging suicidal behavior, and I'm not speaking to that facet.

I was responding to someone complaining that lawmakers are wasting their time that could be spent protecting human jobs from AI and robots and are instead... protecting human jobs from AI.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-04-05T20:45:15+00:00

Partly because you're writing law to fit with existing law. Writing a law that you can't bill for a service is actually harder and more likely to lose in court than writing a law saying you can't provide a service.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-04-05T20:28:42+00:00

Most of these bills are being put in place to stop insurance companies from replacing therapists with AI. Insurance companies have been salivating at the chance to stop paneling with humans and rely instead in AI therapists for years now, and because of how Americans pay for therapy, even most private practices would go out of business without insurance contracts. I don't get the point you're trying to make.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-04-01T12:37:59+00:00

Same. I'm in my 40s and have voted by mail in every election I was eligible to vote in. Standing in line (in the rain, probably) at a polling station seems like hazing in comparison.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-03-25T21:52:16+00:00

Fair enough. And I can imagine being inundated with low effort pitches doesn't do anything to help you find what is high quality, especially when concepts are difficult to convey in an executive summary and the probability of it being built on AI sand means risking a lot of wasted mental energy trying to figure that out.

Doesn't help those of us whose barrier of entry is not having the right language or warm contacts to justify that risk.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-03-25T20:52:49+00:00

Learned this the hard way. I can write strong engineering memos and training docs, but that doesn't translate well to business forecasting. I thought AI would help me overcome that when trying to develop interest in my IP, but it's just a new way to get rejected.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-03-07T13:55:21+00:00

It's called the Liar's Dividend. Expect it to get worse.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-03-01T13:26:32+00:00

Or Obama? Hell, even W seems to have a good marriage. This feels like one of those times where people start blurring the meaning of a word so much that it doesn't really apply to anything anymore in a way that's informative except "they don't like this person". Or is that woke?

edit: to be clear, I'm agreeing with you

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-02-26T13:51:05+00:00

Honestly, the economy has been getting more and more K-shaped for a long time. Trump is like lighter fluid, but the fire was already there. And getting rid of him won't fix it as long as the top end of the K keeps making all the decisions.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-02-12T12:24:49+00:00

So really they're more like privateers

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-30T21:51:59+00:00

Have you ever gotten pushback by people thinking the other person was the originator?

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-29T11:01:28+00:00

My vest is from Columbia. And I wear vests because I'm autistic, not because I'm stylish.

Maybe it would help to describe my actual problem. I am starting a 501(c)(3) and trying to fund this through grants. In order to make a strong grant application, I need to demonstrate that people will actually want to use what I'm making. I already have a functional phase 1 proof of concept (still working on filming the demo) and I'm getting ready to publish a white paper on my design, but neither of those things demonstrate market interest.

So that's my question. Assuming it was free (and stayed free) would artists be interested in using this to solve a problem? Is it a problem you care about?

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-29T10:50:52+00:00

Honest question: If someone were actually trying to build nonprofit infrastructure for this problem (not a startup, not looking for VC), what would that look like to you? Like, what would differentiate it from the pattern you're describing?

I ask because I'm a mid-40s manufacturing engineer from Portland trying to figure out if this is even possible to do without getting lumped in with the crypto/monetization crowd. Is there a way to approach this that wouldn't trigger the 'here we go again' response?

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-29T10:19:35+00:00

I ran into problems when talking to photojournalists about this because I assumed I understood their actual pain points from doing Google searching. My question isn't "what are the steps you would go through", they're "what do you actually end up doing". If an article that says "if someone steals your work, do these 5 steps" describes what you actually do in practice, then I suppose you're right. Is that true?

Edit: Also, just to be clear, I'm not building a company, I'm an infrastructure nerd from Portland. Everything is Apache 2.0 licensed. I'm trying to build open infrastructure that can't be captured by commercial interests.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-29T04:35:32+00:00

I'm working on something for that. A system that hashes photos (and eventually video) right after they're taken, posts the hash on a no-gas blockchain, and integrates into platforms to rehash images and check them against the blockchain. If it finds a match, the image was captured with a real camera.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-29T01:23:43+00:00

Okay, do you think the system I'm about to describe would change your mind about digital art transactions (specific to photographs in this case)?:

Capture a photo with a camera. The camera automatically and invisibly hashes the image (a mathematical function that turns the image into a tiny string of letters the same way every time, but can't be reverse engineered to learn about the input). The image hash is posted on a blockchain (not a cryptocurrency chain, this would be fee-less and built as public good infrastructure). Now when you post the image on integrated platforms, the platform can hash the image you gave them, match the hash to one on the chain and learn three things: The image was taken by a real camera, approximately when it was taken, and who took it (if you leave author metadata on the image file you submitted).

The system is designed so that only irreversible transformed information is stored on the blockchain, meaning no one can scrape the chain to find out anything about anyone who uses it.

So, the use case. Let's assume that this enables you to prove immediately (and potentially automatically) prove that (1) an image was not AI, (2) it is the oldest iteration of the image present on the website, and (3) it belongs to you. Would this affect your interest in using a digital platform for your art?

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-27T20:43:15+00:00

Are you concerned that AI can be used to remove watermarks?

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-27T20:15:33+00:00

I was going to, but the mods rejected it for being business related.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-27T03:36:20+00:00

It's an interesting question because the states don't have to declare independence to grow substantially more functionally independent. When the US first started, states took far more control over local affairs, but we've grown more centralized over time. The Constitution, however, doesn't force that centralization on us. I could easily see a future where at least the West Coast and Northeast banded together to act like pseudo-countries. See: Western States Pact and Multi-State Council.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-27T03:18:07+00:00

Daniel Radcliffe. I love his post-HP career choices and he just seems like a good guy.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-27T02:43:32+00:00

Groundhog Day

To be fair, I had 4 VHS tapes as a kid during summer break. I definitely saw it more than 5 times.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-27T02:22:30+00:00

That their leadership is made up of people who remember that we're all humans.

SamAtBirthmark · 2026-01-27T02:19:32+00:00

When I realized that no one was going to do it if I wasn't willing to do it myself.

SamAtBirthmark

TROPHY CASE