n.b.8 | "this song sucks"

No life updates this week other than the constant desire to have more time. More minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week. I read once that we live in a time economy, not an attention economy, and it does feel very true. I'm always interested in things that can save time, meaning that I can reallocate it to more important things elsewhere.

— n.b.

R E A D :

I asked Chat GPT to write a song in the style of Nick Cave

So, someone made the mistake of sending singer-songwriter Nick Cave (most famously of the band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) a song in "his style" written by Chat GPT. 

The sender, Mark from Christchurch, New Zealand, will likely never make such a mistake again, after Nick Cave returned with a scathing takedown of the song, Chat GPT, and AI in general.

I do wonder that, since we imprint so much of our own meaning on the things we read or listen to, if technologies like Chat GPT and its eventual musical equivalent will create outputs that will truly resonate with us. if they haven't already. Perhaps, but it will be much more difficult to build out the life and personality of the artist, which is ultimately what we connect with most.

Anyway, here's a great quote:

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All my classes suddenly became AI classes

(I realize I'm talking a lot about AI again. I'd like to not, honestly, but it's interesting.)

Everyone's wondering what AI will do to classrooms, so it's nice to see teachers strike back first. Ethan Mollick, professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, has written and applied an 'AI policy' for his classes.

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Law of triviality - Wikipedia

Probably one of those things where, once you've seen it, you'll start seeing it everywhere.

Stumbled upon the Law of Triviality recently, which reads:

Most interestingly, this argument came about from a discussion around adding a bikeshed to a nuclear power plant. A disproportionate amount of the discussion went extremely minor details--like the design, location, and materials of the bikeshed--to the point where these insignificant details started to eclipse discussion around the design of the plant itself.

Also, the reason why they call this productivity trap 'bikeshedding'.

P L A Y :

PlayPhrase.me: Site for cinema archaeologists.

Been having a lot of fun with PlayPhrase.me recently, which lets you search for phrases from almost 8,000,000 movie clips.

I'd be ecstatic if I were a quippy YouTuber and could use these constantly, but I'm sure there are some other, more useful applications too.

W A T C H  :

Fire of Love (2022)

Finally watched 'Fire of Love', the documentary about "intrepid scientists and lovers" Maurice and Katia Krafft. Really beautiful. I had heard that the footage was good, but both Maurice and Katia were also very poetic in their writing. The narration style from artist and author Miranda July gave the doc such a unique air.

Highly suggest, even just for the overwhelming footage alone.

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The History of Dogs: evolution, archaeology, and mythology | Full lecture (University of Wyoming)

One of my 'background noise during work' videos last week was this lecture on the history of dogs by professional archaeologist David Ian Howe.

A ton of interesting information in this one, some of which even surprised my historical understanding of our relationship with dogs. Most of all, though, I was really moved by these Greek and Roman dog epitaphs (found at the end of the linked video, in case you want to see for yourself).

Thank you again for reading.

— n.b.