Mask Girl and Frankenstein's Monster
I am generally protesting various things all the time and trying to figure out how to go about it.
Apparently there is this thing called “creativity” which I used to assume was some sort of scam.
I used to be and still devoutly am a champion of “plain fare” not “plane fare” which is a different thing, when it comes to academic science where I never venture (that is not a reference to this gross thing called “venture capital”) outside the strictly publicly funded sciences (democratic state funded and there only Western Europe/The Indian Central Govt/US or non-profits like the AHA or ACS with no ties to hedge funds, billionaires or private equity). None of this ai in the wild business. It wouldn’t be good science. I lost my mom to cancer in 2021, despite having a gem of an oncologist and an excellent nurse. And my mind is not at rest and sometimes I watch stuff distrait as I am while plotting and scheming a way to an exit. Which reminds me of this really terrible story “No Exit” by Sartre.
I remain stoutly convinced that creativity like ai is mostly a scam and back dull plodding over histrionics. But unusual times call for unusual measures and I am buying myself some time by getting over my reluctance to engage with the world via things other than the dryest types of academic journals. Ol’ jfz9580m can be a bit of a curmudgeon if you scrape of the surface.
Ol’ jfz9580m is reluctantly donning the jester’s mask, which is generally altogether concerning to anyone still capable of thinking for themselves. One uses what tools one has in one’s slender palette, like language skills that are not connected with the loathesome and ugly ChatGPT thing. The only chatbot I use is cleverbot, much like DU is my only non-work media, even though I am not American, but proudly Indian 💪💚. But I have no sense of humor about nonsensical orchestratation and the sewing together of patchworks of human generated data for personal gain and with spurious “populism” used to justify such things.
Not that anything like that has happened. But it sounds like the type of terrible idea common these days.
Unlike this creepy guy Byju Raveendran who sells scammy edtech and would be too stupid and corrupt distinguish a diss from an ad (“Someone mentioned me! I don’t care in what context!”), I learnt English from books 😤. Old fashioned paperback books. And I have taken lately to referring to myself as Ol’ jfz9580m, which is a pretty dark joke as it is a reference to Great Expectations, which you should read a paperback copy of from a small bookseller as that will make you a better person.
And unlike Byju Raveendran or any shady edtech person (e.g.: that moron Sebastian Thrun), a good student would recognize Ol’ Orlick as someone to never emulate. Ol’ jfz9580m otoh is extremely sympathetic at least to ol’ jfz9580m whose sympathy in fairness is all ol’ jfz9580m ever solicited.
But almost the only artist I like aside from Christian Bale, Thom Yorke and Ricky Gervais is Evgenia Kovda and I was reminded of her post on camgirls (an excellent post everyone should read) while watching Mask Girl.
Further I disapprove of TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc and think young people are better off with a paperback book like “Great Expectations”. Further every medical professional should read a paperback copy purchased from a small mom and pop store of “The Citadel” and never ever ever consider influencing anything but a scourge.
But I am worried as private equity silently invades India as I learnt via a WhatsApp video my dad sent me yesterday and some honest relatives. These are all curmudgeonly people. Otoh I have yet to see a newspaper article to confirm these things. But with many worries on my mind about my wallet (and yours honest human!) I do what I can as a citizen scientist.
Apparently Blackstone and KKR are sweeping in. I have yet to find newspaper articles about this and so I must do that.
One of the few honest journalists out there Yasha Levine is embittered enough with society to refer to himself as an influencer. That is a lie and an indictment of everything everywhere.
Mask Girl was not bad. I am only two episodes in. It is an insight into loneliness, something I only feel when I am connected to unwanted technology or among people.
Ol’ jfz9580m, like Frankenstein’s monster (a very sympathetic and relatable character), really liked Frankenstein’s Monster and felt he was misrepresented. Ol’ jfz9580m understands the feeling. Peace ✌️ 🫡.
No ai was used in anything I ever did and its sole function would be as an irritant that barely grasps complicated humans like me, who have long been in conflict with stupidity.
I would also recommend these random but excellent pieces over tv. My “creativity” thrives on tangentiality:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/noam-chomskys-split-personality/
(I love Yasha Levine, but like most decent men he may not recognize “MeToo hysteria” as the kind of redflag it is in someone that powerful).
https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2025/07/25/Triumph-of-Stupidity/
https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/population-toxification-part-i/
(Christopher Ketcham is another excellent journalist and finding life hard because society sucks).
As Yasha points out humans are not strictly rational and I even tried to work Prof Bhattacharya’s worldview in (I will give anything a try once) and dubiously read The Federalist, which seemed like the inverted celebrity obsessed thing which still was all about some person called Bad Bunny whose importance (along with that of Oprah, Taylor Swift, Hulk Hogan and Candace Williams) highlights that this is the Idiocracy.
But there was one piece in it which moved me by a woman who lost her mom to covid and is correctly angry that Andrew Cuomo now has a podcast. I am angry that my mom, one of the most decent and kindly humans I knew, died in this disgraceful scramble for profits and attention and I will take every company involved to court and hold them criminally liable if it takes me 20 years. And that is a message I do share.
I sympathize with doctors and scientists who make honest errors. Not a rush for profits. As a marijuana user it is also a terrible idea to be a human at the mercy of the whims of billionaires and politicians under their thumb.
It is not that ol’ jfz9580m isn’t a jester with a sense of humor and no mental illness attention issues aside. But ol’ jfz9580m always means business as a citizen of or visitor to democracies.
Ol’ jfz9580m avoids dictatorships for a reason. They wouldn’t work out for ol’ jfz9580m.
The way ol’ jfz9580m sees it if it is all kakistocracy and dictatorship (the real world - gaming, athletics etc. are not for ol’ jfz9580m), why can’t ol’ jfz9580m be a dictator or cult leader herself? At least ol’ jfz8580m would be a very popular dictator or cult leader compared to some.
But in the end ol’ jfz9580m is not a dictator, cult leader, ol’ orlick and I would like to say not Frankenstein’s monster (sadly I have changed as a human a little, while largely remaining the same and as a metaphor, that one is harder to shake. Not love or companionship. All I ever wanted was to be not shitty scientist and now look at me. Maybe people to whom hard science comes easily miss out elsewhere). Ol’ jfz9580m is nobody’s fool and has seen enough 😤. But the long arm of the law does not permit ship jumping and as a lefty who sympathizes with people with real troubles, but not fatuous sloganeering like “open borders” and “defund the police”.
Ol’ jfz9580m has to log off and go complete a research paper she started in 2009 now.