Hey TWhbp, I have a couple updates today. I think I can do a small update related to two different topics. The first topic will break down my success with stable-diffusion 3 (not 3.5 yet, maybe on the weekend), and discuss some thoughts from the creator of Ethereum.
First to stable-diffusion 3 (sd3)
So I was able to generate a few images, see the gallery below. All but one seem to be pretty convincing considering I'm not using sd3.5 yet. I'm sure there will be improvements in the newer 3.5 model, but the instructions were for version 3. There's a gallery below, so see with your own eyes that what robots can do for us these days. The Jetsons showed us that we'd be in a tech utopia with robots doing our chores... instead now we get to do all the chores and robots are doing the fun, creative stuff. The fun, creative stuff that we felt we were the only thing with the agency to do so... If God gave us such creativity, why did we pass it along to the robots?
So how did I create these? Well there's a couple useful tutorials I found that I think will be great for you if you want to try it out. They are ran locally using ollama, with ComfyUI. To install them ollama is just a regular application, but ComfyUI requires some special instructions. I used this tutorial entitled Easy Install Comfy UI on PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) . I then configured sd3 with this tutorial on the same site Install and Run Stable Diffusion 3 (ComfyUI) .
These images turned out pretty good except the one lady laying on the beach with some weird appendages. I didn't write these prompts they were defaulted in the sd3 repository on Hugging Face. But I think they look pretty well done except the woman laying on the beach, not too sure what's going on there.
'No Longer Ethereum': Vitalik Buterin Makes Surprising Statement
From this article (titled the same as the header of this part of my post), the creator of Ethereum (ETH) is concerned about the centralization (read: anti-democratic) changes to the cryptocurrency. The community surrounding ETH is looking to layer on centralized pieces that make the tech more interesting and maybe more usable for general consumption. But the guiding principles of access to all are starting to crack. It's the same all around in nearly every game we get to play, the constant enshitification of every aspect of life. If you don't notice the games that are being played it can be easy to dismiss, but let articles like this be contrarian to your worldview so you can see further.
Bringing it together
It takes concerted effort in every step of life, every game we play, to keep the powers that be out of the nice things that might benefit the working class. I need to stay current in tech as a software developer, so I can stay current and provide insights to new tech. It's very easy to falsify data and information; now images, video and audio are starting to have cracks in their believability as well. I generated the images above in seconds, and without much difficulty. This is the sort of thing I'm concerned with as it comes to issues such as social-engineering and even systemic aspects of society, like creating false narratives that impact the knowledge of the constituents of our democratic process.
I see something like cryptocurrency as being a vessel to some sort of techo-utopia. One where we are globally tied to a single currency that meets inflation goals with certainty. One where we can trust the system won't take all your money because you had a wrong-think or associated with someone deemed to be less desirable. One where banks are not necessary to the working class, we can have our own system where we can have trust. It's not too attainable for every person to open a bank, so it's really a position that we the workers should not allow; that should be ran by something like a blockchain.
Identity issuance is another aspect that we must control to be empowered as workers. The idea is that these things can both exist on an immutable datastore that we can keep for generations. The data cannot be re-written without a consensus, and if we all want a verifiable system for the ages it's something we must figure out at some point. I'm not going to be the one who does it, but maybe I can provide some tools for someone to get lucky one day after me.
One issue relating to all tech, everything in this capitalist bubble we find ourselves in today. If we get nice things like blockchain, like internet, like pretty much anything; there's a lot of players in the game who want to profit off the tech. We're just scrambling on top one another, going after the breadcrumbs the oligarchs drop as they slop our labour into their mouths.
We're just scrambling on top one another, going after the breadcrumbs the oligarchs drop as they slop our labour into their mouths (as interpreted by sd3):
So yea, now I can now generate images for this blog that don't need to be attributed to other creators. I can generate images in a second and not worry it's going to be DMCA'd. I can generate some pictures and save some money. It sucks for my partner who is an artist, as her work is completely devalued. If I can generate these images in seconds, why would I want to pay her days to make that which essentially does the same function? I think as we uncover the tech it will become apparent that AI is "good enough" for many jobs. Heck this years Coca-cola commercial is AI generated already... probably many artists still were needed, but I'm sure the cost Coca-cola was a fraction of Christmas commercials produced without AI in the past.
We're still in the early stages of AI and labour feeling the squeeze, it's going to be a coinflip on if our government policies and system of distribution of wealth will need to be re-thought. Or maybe the powers that be will let millions of us suffer and die because we can no longer feed ourselves or have shelter? Shit idk, but it's why I want to start a conversation yesterday. I want to make sure that those who will be impacted know that they've done nothing wrong. In this capitalist society, you can do everything right but it's also a roll of the dice. It's not that we need to destroy the system we're in, but make it work for the everyman. Whether you'll be successful and get a few moments at the top of the crab bucket should not be a way to operate. Many are scrambling on the ground looking for these scraps, but the oligarchs are starting to keep even the breadcrumbs for themselves, what will we be eating without the crumbs?
Isaac