Speaking of weirdness of AI in the arts, one thing I noticed with these new chart-topping AI artists is that if you look at their back-catalog they release something like 6+ albums a year, much of which is only slight variations?

OK, nevermind, commenters convinced me that this likely is AI. The way the hand is holding the cap is weird, plus the red sleeve doesn't make sense! This is the kind of thing I think of as being underappreciated in the arts: nevermind the next Shakespeare, consider the entire arts gig economy!

This ad is almost certainly human-made, but I've noticed lately that any time I see a generic style I just assume AI was involved?

So, I was reading EB White's collected letters and as a young man in 1922 he mentions the then-recent essay collection "Of All Things!" by Robert Benchley as being hilarious. It... isn't. Mostly forgettable, but there is a very funny passage where he mocks the tone of 18th century epistolary novels:

Has there ever been a study where an age-controlled set of the population is quizzed over time about the same period of time? Like, every year, survey a bunch of people and ask them how 1983 was, and then see how the response evolves over time.

Of course you don't need AI. You can just crunch the numbers in excel. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/hop PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

Bea Wolf 2 is getting close, and I've never worked on anything that felt more like one of those movie scenes where the wizard does something, then falls over exhausted. But, this week I came up with "assigned seating of souls" as an alliterative metaphor for growing up.

Wish every time I read a book where someone talks about the particular people "rooted" to a land they would explain what they plan to do with diaspora communities in their proposed future.

Anyone complaining about the math just needs bigger or smaller pasta. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/aspect PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

I have this theory that all book rec algorithms default to "would you like this romance novel" when they run out of ideas. E.g. I searched Emily Oster on audible and the sixth entry is "no more Oster, but we have this romance novel by someone named Emily"

Been reading Robert Browning lately, and it's the first time I can remember reading a poem where it's much easier to grok if you ignore linebreaks and say it aloud? Like see:

They quietly cruise into a carwash and try to put his body in the trash. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/splat PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

I was reading about an interesting scientific protocol recently, where you can induce "tip-of-the-tongue" (TOT) states in humans. It's remarkably clever. Basically you give people a list of definitions, then ask if they can think of the word. Most of the time they either can or have no clue.

We could build this NOW. The future of damaging children is HERE. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/where-3 PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

How many rogue planets and stars are there? Daniel and Kelly answer a question from a listener about planets without stars and stars without galaxies. www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...

Til about medieval Christian sexts

TIL about St Mercurius, whom the Blessed Virgin commanded to kill kill kill!

About to release a new social category into the world

Niche complaint: So, I wrote a joke about David Ricardo I think is really funny. In Old Internet I would've put it up and thought little about it. On Now Internet, I'll put it up anyway, By God, but invariably will see all algorithmic platforms punishing me for it. Boo to y'all, I say. Boo.

I have faced the look in the southwest panel on many occasions, and always capitulated.

The anti-Susan pamphleteering outside the house is also a difficulty their marriage has to work through. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/effigy PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

Microplastics are everywhere. How did they get there, and should we worry? www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...

Bonus panel here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/effigy #smbc

Bonus panel here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/effigy #smbc

Good morning, I would like to speak with Canada. Listen, the song "Four Strong Winds" is lovely, but everyone sings it wrong, including in the original. Look at these lyrics. They're screaming for a sad emo boi with a guitar. Instead we get big bands and/or harmonies.

Skeletor calls for aid! COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/tolkie... PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

Bonus panel here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/aspect #smbc

Jeez. I thought my comic about the president's turkey fucking gaffe was hyperbole, but reality is impressive.

Bonus panel here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/aspect #smbc

One of the interesting things in philosophy of AI is what you might call the sociology of Searle's Chinese Room. I learned about the idea largely from comp sci people, who almost always treat it as "that thing Searle was obviously wrong about." And they use a different argument from philosophers.

There is a galley giveaway of SAWYER LEE AND THE QUEST TO JUST STAY HOME going on right now! bit.ly/3KnbspK

It's called planned obsolescence! COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/life-9 PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

I was listening to a francophone podcaster, who said the diff between anglo and french humor is anglos mock themselves and the French mock other people. This was shocking because most of the French jokes I've read are by @bouletcorp.bsky.social who draws himself as a filthy cave-dwelling nerd.

Why did we get weird about kale and not collard or turnip greens, which are objectively superior in every role?

Why do you think it is that when someone dies, we reflexively want to talk about their preferences, even to strangers? E.g. "he liked to travel" "she was a big fan of [x]" "he made delicious pies" etc ?

Is Christmas the only holiday where we get really neurotic about "the meaning of [holiday]?" You don't do this with Easter or Thanksgiving. To my knowledge it's not done with e.g. Yom Kippur or Ramadan. The point and meaning are fairly straightforward.

How old were you when you realized Captain Chanukah wasn't real, and was just your dad wearing a Captain America suit with menorahs glued to the shoulders?

I used to run an entire network of blogs. The server cost $600/month and the ads on my posts alone paid about $300/month. Eventually the ad revenue dropped while I got constant legal threats from quacks & copyright vultures. Now I run 1 blog with only my own posts for an archive when Patreon dies.

Live stream is starting now! twitch.tv/davidmalki

TODAY - 3 more competitors enter the BOLTAGON for a head-to-head BOLT-BOUT: Zach Weinersmith! @zachweinersmith.bsky.social Sen! @dresdencodak.com Kevin McShane! @kevinmcshane.org Streaming live @ 4:15 Pacific at twitch.tv/davidmalki Playing this game: www.kickstarter.com/projects/mal...

Moments like these are what language learning is all about

Mildly amusing: I listen to an intermediate-level French podcast to improve my listening skills, and the guy is absolutely fluent in English. But, he got a listener who referred to working in the Peace Corps, pronouncing it the normal way. Then the podcast host pronounced "the Peace corpse"

Why does only Chinese food culture have the thing where you pour blazing hot oil over spices and stuff? Feels like everyone needs a version of this?

Jerome K Jerome, complaining about phones, in 1899

Turkin hard or hardly turkin? COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/turkin PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

Weird econ question: Separate from whether it'd be good or bad policy, what if instead of an inheritance tax to avoid wealth concentration, the inheritance simply disappeared. Meaning the money doesn't go to the gov't when you die. It just disappears from your bank account.

Unfortunate he felt he had to make that choice. A lot of my work is independent, but I've worked for numerous publishers and have never been made to feel I couldn't have an open political persona (to the limited extent I do).

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

This one hurts: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... I wonder why psychology is so full of people who should've been novelists.

Turkey full comic here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/turkin #smbc