Frankly yes. In a better world art would not be commodified and the economic barriers that hinder commissioning of art from skilled human artists in our capitalist system would not exist, and thus generative AI recombining existing art would likely be much less problematic and harmful to both artists and audiences alike.

But also that is not the world where we live, so fuck GenAI and its users and promoters lmao stay mad.

Those avocado expenses add up real quick. Add some toast and it'll make or break your ability to buy a home!

First impression: queer (and therefore better) take on whatever Cybersmith was on about(??)

Ultraman in particular may have been a big trendsetter in using Christian imagery for flavor in Japanese science fiction media at the time.

My take is that the meaning of the Abrahamic references in Eva goes a little bit deeper than just random aesthetics. Most of the allusions fit their mythological counterparts neatly enough, that clearly some research went into them and the references aren't just random. I don't think the series is trying to comment on Abrahamic religion, though. The references are considered and deliberate as worldbuilding devices, but ultimately just there for flavor.

And yeah, jury's still out on whether in-universe they're really invoking biblical figures and concepts or if someone at NERV/SEELE/GEHIRN was simply feeling a bit pretentious with their code name scheme.

Yeah, as a kid I was kinda the archetypal nerd. Short, fat, airheaded, besserwisser, straight A's,* into manga and video games. My best friend for most of primary school was the guy with even better grades, but tall, handsome and a national championship level athlete.

Then puberty hit me pretty early and suddenly I was about median height for my age, I could do pull-ups while most of my classmates couldn't, and even though I wasn't that fond of gym class, I was mostly motivated enough to get a decent grade just for trying a little.

The nerd/jock thing always felt like an American thing from an older generation that wasn't taken seriously. Maybe it was acknowledged by an overthinker like me, but to even bring up the distinction was kinda nerdy itself. It definitely wasn't the defining social divisor in my adolescent life.

*Or rather, nines and tens on the weird 4 to 10 scale Finnish primary education uses.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was not supposed to be an instruction manual!

Pixel art of an adult person female holding a text sign that says adult person chicken.

I don't recall

Oh, so that's where the punching someone when you see a yellow car/VW beetle thing comes from. Interesting to note that of all the customs to observe in a social encounter (such as "don't suddenly punch people for stupid reasons") Duncan chooses the convention mostly followed by tween boys for the purpose of annoying each other.

Anyway, I guess the book fails to defend the undefendable, then? Seems pretty obvious, to be honest.

They've gone from math pets to math woodland creatures now?

Gringo*

I would certainly be in favor of a movement to extend human rights to AIs, provided that AIs are sentient intelligent beings, which they are not. I can see why this would surprise him, but if your movement insists that large language models can think and feel and are not only as smart as humans but way better at almost everything, people may end up wanting humane treatment for them.