Dan Antion

Are We There Yet?—1LinerWeds

With all this talk about ChatGPT and how it’s going to make writers irrelevant and bury us all in computer generated whiz-bangery, I thought I’d start this post by demonstrating how late-to-the-game this AI-fangled thing is. Writers have been gaming it for eons—it’s called plagiarism.

I took today’s title from a cartoon on Marian Allen’s Monday Recommends and Nail Art Post – Elementary, My Dear St. Patrick. If you don’t follow Marian, you should. And, for the record, it’s not really plagiarism if you admit it and credit the source.

My one-liner today is also a bit of plagiarism in action but it’s also a permissible kind because I’m copying myself. I guess, technically, I’m reusing something I already wrote—something else writers have been doing for eons.

My little bit of quotable insight comes from a comment I left on Ally Bean’s post yesterday at her blog, “The Spectacled Bean.” Ally’s post, “Pondering A Quandary: Is The Goal Of Setting Goals A Good Goal?” posed an interesting question, and she asked us to answer some questions in our comments. Since, as she says, “Cool kids leave comments. Be a cool kid.” I felt compelled to leave a comment. Since I’m me, my comment was on the long side—yes, like this one-liner. I won’t repeat the whole comment, you can find that at Ally’s place but I’ll give you the gist of it:

“I think journeys should include side trips as well as destinations.”

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner, or if you would like to join in on the fun, you can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.

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Hi. Yes, me again. You seem to like that perch/
No, I didn’t try to get to the top.
That was the last pole to be replaced near the park. I saw the crews (5 bucket trucks) working but I was driving and police were directing traffic, so no pictures.
Hyacinth and (we think) baby unnies
Tangled up or holding on?
A little context for this leaf
This guy just can’t seem to rest
He likes the high spots as well
We’re starting to see some buds poking out. It won’t be long
For the moment, we have twice as many poles and wires as we need. We haven’t lost our service yet.
Our morning temps have been around 24°f (-4°c). Coupled with a stiff breeze, it’s been cold walking.
I just want your picture, buddy. I’m no threat.
Off and heading toward a small wooded area.
Be careful out there
He likes the high spots


If you like magical realism with suspense, action and a bit of family sarcasm, you will enjoy these books:

Knuckleheads
The Evil You Choose
When Evil Chooses You

Series page on Amazon

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All available on Kindle Unlimited!

109 comments

  1. I will not ride in a self driving car and I sure will not chat with an AI. Some ‘biological’ chat units are scary enough. I do not trust them and more importantly I see no justification…

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  3. Thanks for the mention. I’m pleased to know I could inspire you to one-liner greatness. Also, your comment helped me understand my issue better. Ever onward, go I… without the help of any AI-fangled thing.

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  4. Thank you for this! I am so in the mood to rant on this very subject. Fortunately for you and your readers, I haven’t had enough coffee yet. Lots of good stuff here today: I think life is just a series of side trips — forget destination — and I agree that giving credit where credit is due is not plagiarism, and that’s why I will credit you every time I use “whiz-bangery,” which gave me one of those moments I was glad I’d already swallowed my coffee! Another near-miss for my keyboard, but thanks for the great addition to my vocabulary!

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    • I fear the day you’re going to submit a bill for a new keyboard. Catching you before or during that first cup can be dangerous. I’m glad you like”whiz-bangery.” We are surrounded by it these days, but often, it doesn’t impress me much. Keep making those side trips.

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  6. No thank you to AI…I have enough difficulty grasping ordinary human intelligence! I don’t want my household appliances talking to me or my car driving while my hands are in my lap.

    Beautiful hawk, but he was sure giving you the stink eye Dan.

    Love the Turtle Crossing sign! We need reminders that humans aren’t the only ones here that we need to look out for.

    Yep, those leaves and hyacinths look like they are protecting some baby bunnies.
    Ginger

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    • Glad that you’re on our side, Ginger. Examples of human intelligence might be getting harder to find, but they’re still preferable. As for talking appliances, they are not on the shopping list in this house.

      That hawk isn’t happy with me when I walk down his street. It’s the entrance to the park. I told him, “I’m just going to visit the memorial and snap a picture of the flag,” but he wasn’t welcoming me to the neighborhood.

      We have a Turtle Crossing sign in our town, but it’s small and only has one turtle. I’d never seen one like this before.

      I’m not sure there are (or will be) bunnies under there, but that pile of leaves looks a bit too neat and tidy to have formed on its own

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  11. I really hate that robots are trying to answer your questions to problems both on the phone and online–even banks make it hard to talk to a “real” person these days. If a robot could solve it, you wouldn’t be calling about it. If the website could solve it, you would have figured it out…
    and you can always post photos of hawks! (K)

    Liked by 1 person

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    • The worst is when I’m calling to complain about an Internet outage. I push ‘2’ and the robot on the phone tells me to check the website. I’m sure if they record your response, they have more than a few that said, “If I could check the website, I wouldn’t be calling!”

      This hawk is a favorite of mine, but he’s usually so much higher. I have a picture of him on that wire eating a much smaller bird. I haven’t posted that, but he was giving me a look that said he didn’t want to share (not that I was interested).

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  12. It’s always about the journey for me–the destination is almost an anti-climax. I think that’s why I love road trips so much. Those ‘historic downtown’ signs get me every time.
    Back when I was working, my department took that color personality test that Ally wrote about. I was a ‘yellow’–I was resistant to change and wanted to know the ‘why’ to everything. That test had me down to a “T.” It was interesting that my department was all the colors, so we had a great mix–even if I did drive the supervisor crazy sometime. “Just go with it, Lois.” “Heck, no! I’m yellow!”

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    • Haha – “Heck, no! I’m yellow!” – I don’t think your regular readers would be surprised by that. But you get (and thankfully, share) such interesting photos, Lois. Not just things, but life. Road trips are wonderful.

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    • It is plagiarism of a sort, Staci, and the image AI servers are actual plagiarism – they are copying from other images. They say their data comes from free-to-use sources, but I’m willing to bet they don’t follow the rules. Many of those sites restrict commercial use, or changes to the image, and many reuire attribution.

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  16. I agree wholeheartedly with your quote and might have said something similar in my comment to Ally. I was so worried you were going to give us a sample of this blasted Chat crap and muy happy that you didn’t and wouldn’t. I am SO sick of the number of bloggers who have tried it, to be honest.

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    • We have tons of squirrels here, but they aren’t good at following rules. I have stopped once for turtles, it can take a while. I’ve been stopped by wild turkeys, which can also take a while.

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  18. I’m beginning to think I have a ‘thing’ for dead leaves. Wonder what that says about me? I love your quote of you. I think any journey has to include side trips otherwise you’re just moving from point A to point B and where is the fun in that?

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  19. I’m generally a “get to where you’re going and no side trips” neurotic sort. I love hyacinths – such cool plants – I think they may be related to my penis plant. We’re just cleaning up from a real doozy of a storm.

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    • I have been known to go from A to B without a diversion, but I usually leave early enough to allow for a side trip, especially if I’m driving alone. I had to look up your polant to make sure that wasn’t a typo – wow. Your weather has been in the news too often this winter. I hope things settle down for you.

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    • You’re in good company, here, Jan. I’ll pass along your compliments to the hawk the next time I see him. He’s becoming a regular guest at the park I walk to.

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  27. Love your one line, Dan, and your photos of the hawk. Side trips can turn into the highlights of a trip.

    I, like Deborah, prefer people to AI and machines although the way things are going, it’s getting harder to tell which is which or who is who or whatever.

    Liked by 1 person

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    • It is getting harder to tell the difference in some cases, but I still prefer interacting with humans (well, most humans).

      I’m glad you like the hawk. Maybe if I tell him people liked the photo, he won’t be giving me the stink-eye when I focus on him ;-)

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    • I get confused like that al the time, Teagan. I’m always finding a Thursday Doors post when I prepare the recap that I don’t remember.

      Hugs on the hawk wing.

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  29. Thanks for the plug, and thanks for using the term “whiz-bangery”. Great term! Before GPS, my mother and I always left an hour early when we went places we’d never been before, because we always got lost. It was usually interesting. It was quite a shock when I married Charlie and he fussed and cussed if we went five minutes out of our way.

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    • We got lost a lot when doing trips around here. One of my first dates with my wife resulted in my getting us royally lost. That she didn’t get angry, and we turned it into a fun diversion, cemented my already being smitten with her.

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  30. HI Dan, I agree with you. Setting goals just for the sake of it is pointless and uninspiring. The auditing firms are very good at this. They actually give us goals that are prepopulated. How is that my goal? I also agree that the road to an outcome is paved with mini triumphs.

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  31. A very interesting post, Dan. The follow-up discussion was very illuminating. I am a Star Trek fan and loved the idea of a Holodeck, which are a popular feature in the Star Trek universe. They are simulated environments that use holographic technology to create realistic surroundings and are used for both training purposes and recreational activities. The future of AI is promising, with advancements in machine learning, natural language processing and robotics. AI is already being used in various industries such as healthcare, finance and transportation. It is expected to revolutionize these industries and create new ones. However, concerns about job displacement and ethical considerations must be addressed. We live in interesting times.

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    • That we do, Rebecca. I think there is a place for this technology, but I dread seeing it used to create “creative” content. AI is 100% based in the past. It may only be yesterday, but if it doesn’t already exist or isn’t already understood, AI doesn’t know about it. It also scares me that bias can be programmed into that knowledge base. I’m not just talking about social/political boas. I read a report that talked about a medical procedure database that was complied, without recognizing that heart disease in men (the widely used input) is considerably different than heart disease in women. We are definitely moving forward, I just hope we see all the potential problems.

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