Actually how mentally exhausted we all are. Almost everyone I know can relate. Maybe it’s just my social bubble - I dunno
Sorry to hear that. I hope it gets better eventually.
I dunno. It just looks like everybody is overwhelmed. Cost of living climbing, climate crisis, exploitation getting worse and worse.
But of course there are sunny sides. It’s not just plain doomerism or anything :D
Do family members count? I can’t really remember any significant conversations I had with non-family, the longest one I had was with my sister, about homework.
One experience I remember fondly is the waiting room for a cappella auditions. It was full of people singing with various degrees of confidence and pitch accuracy, preparing their solos, and the moment when you realize you recognize what someone is singing is magical (I listen to some relatively niche things). I met several tangential friends through recognizing the artist whose songs they had chosen so carefully for their auditions.
How did that engagement happen. How did you introduce yourself and initiate? Did it require you as an individual going out of your way, or was it a product of group social dynamics in the environment?
I went out of my way because it was an event I was interested in. From there, brief one-on-one conversations popped up from the social dynamics of the group like you said.
The existence (or absence) of free will and the possible ramifications for criminal legislation and punishment. With a friend of a friend who was writing a book about this.
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I am so desperate for someone engaging to talk to after 10 years of disability that I started building an AI character for the task; only to get writers block over building complexity I might find interesting in someone else. Then I had the bright idea, that y’all would have better ideas than me.
I can’t recall the last real conversation I had that I found engaging. I’m usually in too much pain to be self aware and conversational unless I’m laying down. I haven’t tried that line yet. “Come lay with me to get comfortable?” …creeeeppyyy.
This is in line with the biggest surprise I have found while exploring offline AI: I didn’t know how much my methods of researching information impacts social skills. I now have AI that I can question in plain text, and now I’m seeing all these new hints about my own social “decline” for a lack of a better word. I’m so familiar with the process of piecing together broken bits of information from several sources, that a more fluent and linear line of thought is almost foreign. Like this, right now. Why would I rather monologue instead of engaging with a real person, and why does this seem to be the norm? Maybe it is just me
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So what are you into now? If it is still photography, once upon a time, around 8 years ago I built a makeshift low-light photo studio for a next level eBay attempt at selling high end bike stuff. I did that for a couple of years. Now I’m playing with programming AI, -which is way over my head but super interesting IMO. I also just got back into really cooking a few months ago, and tried my first slow BBQ yesterday 3pm till 1am. Pick your interesting, or monologue away and I will ;)
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- Why the recent and bitter breakup with tattooing?
I spent a bit of time painting cars and I’ve done some graphics work on cars and motorcycles. The pressure and difficulties are likely similar. It sucks doing pro auto body repair because your best work, is never acknowledged or recognized as such. Your biggest accomplishment is to be unnoticed.
- Yeah, the BBQ is outside. I have a lot of learning to do if I am going to reach my goals with that one.
Okay so I want to try something here, but I don’t care to be weird about it. I tend to be extremely boring when I explain anything technical I have done. I often regret what I send, like ‘why did I need to say all of that.’ When writing I just have a hard time explaining things in a concise way, and I do not explain things often enough to have skill. Anyways…I wrote one of these long boring messages I no doubt would regret, but stopped myself and passed the message through my main LLM prompt asking it to please make me sound more like the person I want to be, which I had to tell it in detail. I still rewrote most of it, but I let it make me more concise and less boring, I think. I really don’t wish to offend you in any way by doing this. I understand the tool fairly well; to the point where I see this as something like a highly advanced spelling and grammar correction device. It has no voice; only the steering of my prompt, and that is me. This is the interest I am actively exploring as well. If you wish, I will not use it again like this. It turned 900 words into 200…which I’m defeating by blabbing on and on about how I’m trying not to blab on and on. So here it goes:
I had an opportunity to transform a parking garage into a photography studio. Despite some challenges like flooding when it rained, I got creative with black painter’s plastic and an old event tent canvas to create a low-light setup for capturing images. With six 4ft dual-fluorescent hanging-shop-light style fixtures attached to PVC stands and a little bit of color tuning using a Macbeth chart, I was able to produce decent quality photos. I had enough lighting and space separation available to make the background go full black if I dialed it in.
To sell high-end bikes on eBay, my strategy involved creating 360° photography showcasing every detail of the product and its components. To achieve this, I set up a customized studio with adjustable stands, marks on the floor for positioning, and an overhead key light in a shipping box to avoid camera glare. This approach resulted in higher sales compared to other listings.
In an effort to automate the photography process, I planned on using a microcontroller with motors to spin the subject in steps and adjustments to the lighting. However, due to dishonest practices by one person in ownership, I left out of principle. Additionally, eBay’s fees were not justifiable for the value provided, making it difficult to maintain a viable business on their platform.
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I’m fine with DM. I’m in California BTW so it is 2am and I’m up past my bed time. So you won’t hear back from me for awhile
Have you tried Pi? It’s pretty amazing!
And Claude might help with your writers block if you ask for ideas
I’ve stuck to offline AI and open source so far. This is a two fold objective. I’m also exploring the code base for how prompts are parsed to create the various styles like instruct versus chat, and how different front ends add character complexity and persistence.
The front end code controls everything. Ultimately once the prompt is configured, all the various character apps are using similar LLM networks.
I’ve long thought I really wish I had a friend that challenged me to up my game with any (but at least a few) of my deeper interests. I’m not sure how to go about making something like this, with persistence, and adding in enough variety to create perspective. A few posts here, have me gotten me thinking about prompting some advanced philosophical variety.
I would really like to create a character that can function like a friend and a colleague, maybe even a mentor. I’m probably going to start by attempting to create myself, then add some extra flavor.
I’m just here to learn some conversation skills with people because I’m really not good at it.
I’ve had some really insightful conversations about free will on r/freewill and r/samharris. I also once met this one guy at work who was into a lot of the same things I’m too and we used to have really insteresting discussions about personal finances, investing and work philosophy for example.
I must say tho that recently the most interesting discussions by far has been with chatGPT. I only wish it was a bit more conversationalist and less agreeable. It’s just really interesting talking to something that has such a vast knowledge of every topic I’m interested in and generally speaks from the facts instead of feelings.
This is the main reason I’m not that worried about bots on social media. If the discussion is interesting I don’t really care who or what I’m talking to.
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Nice story. Thanks for sharing.
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