📗 Spite
When AI is so wrong it's actually helpful
![grimdark ritual altar in a scandinavian bog with drums & acolytes created by midjourney AI bot](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/11/Eleanor_a_ritual_altar_beside_a_temple_dock_in_a_scandinavian_b_8fa945f1-e0e3-43ec-9474-0b0fc3c77417.png)
Drums beat and wild boars screamed as Stef began the sacrifices to imbue her new ship with the strength to stand against bog rot and woodsucker sprites. Her whole body tense, she watched as four acolytes brought blood and myrtle to the dockside altar in a cauldron of glassy black; an heirloom, ancient and precious, but no less sturdy for its age.
A fierce smile split her face as she took the cauldron, muscles bulging with the strain, and splashed the contents across the elevated hull. "Spite!" she screamed, loud and piercing as a raven scout spotting carrion, and named her ship for the reminder it would serve; for why else but rage against her gainsayers would she be planning to cross the sea at the head of a fleet?
Need was too weak a word.
Afterword
It's interesting to me that people get so upset about AI suggestions in writing tools. Not the ethics of it (I understand the ethical debates), but just the sheer annoyance of the suggested correction. That little underline or tooltip about a misplaced comma really gets to some people, myself included at times. So I can understand why it would be frustrating to have a computer constantly trying to tell you how to do something, especially if it's that you're already good at and the computer is not.
When the computer is wrong, and you are right
Frustrating or not, though, it can be helpful for reasons I hadn't expected when I first got access to autocomplete suggestions in my email.
This Content Is for Paid Members
Unlock full access to Obsidian Iceberg and see the entire library of members-only content.
Sign up to view this contentFree
- Weekly updates with community news
Yearly
- Weekly updates with community news
- Monthly essays with tips for leveraging Obsidian
- Defer server costs & thank me for my time
- Less money lost to processing fees
Monthly
- Weekly updates with community news
- Monthly essays with tips for leveraging Obsidian
- Defer server costs & thank me for my time
Already have an account? Log in
📗 One Barbarian Boy
On the ethics of quitting pain to embrace joy
![a child on a swingset in the Andean mountains](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/11/Eleanor_children_playing_on_a_swingset_in_the_style_of_jamie_he_7dfa7436-4b2c-4107-918f-a245a09de71c.png)
📗 Marsh Rat
A long slow decline of a stable world
![a wooden canoe tied to a tree in a cypress swamp](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/11/Eleanor_a_wooden_canoe_tied_to_a_tree_in_a_cypress_swamp_hyperr_e08a92cc-2685-4c25-af81-86db6320a89a.png)
📖 Civil Mage: Chapter 5, Part 2
Irella defends a town.
![Image of a wall in the middle of a mountainside generated via MidJourney AI](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/10/Eleanor_a_small_wall_in_the_middle_of_a_mountainside_750af5b9-6eee-4daa-9462-63330e1ce651.png)