Charles Baudelaire argued photography could not be considered a fine art because it merely produced mechanical replicas of reality without input from human imagination. He called photography "art's most mortal enemy" and the "refuge of all failed painters" who lacked artistic talent and training.
And if he's to be believed in 1859, photography isn't art.
But today, it's widely accepted that it is. And in all likelihood, you think it is too.
Why is that? And if you have an answer, you'd have to argue why AI generated images wouldn't follow the same trajectory.
What about stock photography, IMO as much as I personally hate "overcooked" AI-generated imagery, it doesn't annoy me that much more than stock photography does on blogs.
I do however use it as a gauge of "if the images are generated by AI, how much of the text content is?" though, so...
Yes, stock photography is also lame, but at least their creators gave permission. It's my dream that "AI" is going to make us look back and reconsider some of the pre-era slop we've accepted in the name of convenience. I doubt it, though.
In the spring I will get 3 cows with calf-a-foot who will graze the immense amount of herbal leys we have, as well as maintain our SSSI fields, and then in a few years some of them, the meanest, will go off to the abatoir to become the very finest and well fed beef that money can buy.
We'll expand the herd, and do mob grazing to maintain our species rich grasslands and our SSSI fields, while also providing the best beef to those that appreciate it, family first of course.
Grass fed and pasture fed, are not good enough. The cattle need a wide variety of food, which starts with more than grass or a monoculture pasture.
I'm genuinely starting to think that these tools are being built to make us question our reality, provide plausible deniability to crimes we see happening right now in the middle east, and to encourage people to stop trusting everything they see and read.
I clean my solar panels, 7kwh, every monmth or two.
When I check on the VRM portal it makes a difference, and since I am so dependent on them all year round, I have no problem giving them some attention from time to time. Ten mins well spent.
I have 4kw of panels and 15kwh of storage. I only get down to about 80% most nights (I heat with wood and propane).
But my system will charge completely in about 2 hours of full sun. If it took 3 hours it wouldn't make a difference. So I generally don't clean them (well, the rain and snow do that work).
I do remove snow, because that has a very noticeable impact.
Is the difference that you are pushing back to a grid (I am not), so the power all gets used regardless of you being the one to use it?
I'm off grid, no mains power, and have 8x48v lithium Fogstar batteries in an external rack, since my cabin is small.
On December 21, due to trees, my panels get around 2 hours of full sun, if the universe smiles on me.
I use around 5-6kwh per day, if I use my computer, which I need for work.
This will be the first year with the fogstar batteries, previously had 1x48v generic lithium battery, but last year I used the generator most days from around end of november until March e.g. December
consumption was 153kwh, solar generated 62kWh, and generator made up the rest.
This year, thanks to having more storage, we'll be better able to take advantage of sunny days and capture more power. I also have a freezer and washing machine this year :-) Ask me in March how it went.
All of my panels are easy to access, none on a roof, so the effort is minimal and has non-zero power benefits in my experience.
I should add that I am surrounded by trees and the panels accumulate a green tinge quite quickly, plus bird shit.
> I also have a freezer and washing machine this year
You need a heat pipe between your freezer/fridge and outside. Then it will “function” when it’s colder outside than in your fridge and otherwise sit idle(ish). Sure you’re bringing “cold” into your big warm box (home), you have wood to overcome that. All theory, but it makes sense in my mind!
(Though in most places, it rarely gets colder outside than in your freezer)
I can see how small efficiencies would matter a lot in that sitation.
When I had 6 100W panels and was trying to keep my laptop (and lights) running off that, then I did a lot more trying to keep them clean. If I was having to burn fuel for electricity, I'd certainly be trying a lot harder to squeeze what I can out the array.
Anyhow, good luck.
I likely am in a similar position. My hope is to get a cistern buried this year so I can have more than 40L of liquid water on hand at any given time... and then maybe even a shower :D Washing myself with a bucket is starting to lose its charm.
There is a lot that loses it's charm, lol. Started with an outside kitchen and shower, which was fine in the summer but in the winter when the wind blows and it takes 30 mins to heat a pot of coffee the charm wears thin, lol.
Good luck to you too!
It's fun to meet the basic challenges head on though, eh?
True, I have learned a lot and that has been very interesting and quite fun. I'm at 6500' but am still planning on setting up an outside shower just because it's pretty here. I am waiting on that till I figure out an indoor situation, though.
I got a quote for a backhoe rental today and am a little apprehensive (it's by far the largest machine I will have operated), but hey, I get to run a backhoe for a weekend...
Roof-mounted solar panels are a necessity in urban situations but they are a maintenance nightmare compared to a ground-mounted array. That has to be accepted as "the cost of doing solar" when there is no other alternative.
For me this is how all workflows with AI end up lookingif you really want robust products. Do whatever with AI, go fast (from the point of view of perception, initially) BUT it is not going to work without extra work.
and ho, the bloat, do not forget the bloat, which is technical debt towards the future.
I am not anti-ai per-se, but I consider the software I write as a prouct to add features to and maintain over time. So in this case I think it is not wise to say that bc you got something impressive fast you are done. Now you have bugs, architecture, bloat removal, and others...
Letting an AI manage all the workflow is a recipe for disaster in anything that is not strictly short-term. For this reason, I hardly code one-off scripts myself anymore and I hardly use AI for big things besides discussions with the prompt, reviews and snippets. For adding tests it can also be useful.
For full, long-term products, they try to sell agents, and tokens and the like. I think they do not work well enough what I tried. It always ends up as a bloated unmantainable mess.
Unless something that is totally autonomous (by this I mean 100% autonomous) and automated ever exists, I see writing software that can be maintained by humans still critical. As long as this exists, the productivity upper bound will be that of humans reviewing and driving the workflow, even if with AI support.
Not “wrongly flagged dead”, insta-dead because commenter is a consistent shit-poster. Put down the history book and read the comment history. If you feel strongly about it, vouch for the comment instead of reposting.
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