Speaking as a professional artist myself, I'd wager that many of the responses you've run into are emotional ones. Supporting oneself as an artist was already difficult, and AI generation is an astoundingly powerful tool. For a long time there was a sense of financial security in quieter/grunt background and asset design work such as the WotC backgrounds in this situation. WotC in particular was touted as "one of the companies that actually pays artists to make neat things" in fantasy art circles, and so their fans and artist clients (often one in the same) feel betrayed.

I'm personally a sad-bitch about it because my peers and I have been posting art for one-another and fans online since 2002, our work was scraped, and now people can click a button to ape the look of all of our work without having run across it organically, knowing our names, or being able to, like, say hello to us. I really don't mean that out of self-importance or ego- the community I grew up in online was all about discovering working artists by word of mouth this way, and getting to know them. So it's a weird (albeit unintentional) dismantling of a community and "a way that was", so to speak.

More practically one of my specific worries regarding AI generated images: Illustration in the literal sense of the word means 'to illuminate', to make clear'. Think along the lines of technical illustration- biological in my case, but this extends to mechanical parts, manuals, diagrams, medical books. These are situations where clarity is seriously important, and I feel like the deluge of generated images (and the general public's lack of information about how the image gen works and how to decipher them) will cause harm.

Hopefully that wasn't too much of a ramble. 🫤 TLDR: It isn't necessarily immoral, but people are emotional, it's a big change, and it's happening really damn fast.

Popped in here to say FTL and was delighted to see someone had already mentioned it. Absolutely love that game.

I found it extraordinary- I'm unsure if another movie has made me feel the whole gamut of emotion like this one did, and each heartstring was tugged differently. Skillful stuff.

Good article- I like that first map a lot. The basic point applies to so many of our relationships with nature.

My personal example: Grew up in a house with some attached greenspace in the Midwestern USA, and the woods and riparian areas are terribly overrun with amur honeysuckle, which was originally imported and planted to prevent erosion. It grows fast, early, and tends to form a bit of a monoculture, blocking light from other understory plants and hardwood saplings. Anyway, over the last 10-15 years I've been helping my parents clear the honeysuckle from the little patch of greenspace near us, and there's far more biodiversity now. Tiny hardwood saplings are surviving germination and growing!

Ofc this opens up all sorts of discussions on like...nostalgia, invasive vs endemic vs naturalized, how much to even consider what things "ought" to look like vs what we're capable of doing.

But it was wild seeing the effect of futzing with one plant, in one tiny area, happen with my own eyes. Making sweeping changes to waterways would be unreal to see.

Animals camouflaged as moss, lichen, and leaves are so magical to me; hundreds of thousands of years alongside plants, eventually mimicking them to perfection. Just the most wonderful thing there is. 🥺

Argh tone on the internet- I'm not mad or anything, just wanted to state my opinion since ours are so wildly different, and it's interesting that all of these ideas will have to coexist in gaming spheres.

Speaking strictly as a player, this is the opposite of what I would want in a game. The...intention, I guess, is what I want when I play anything story-driven. Chatting with ai on purpose feels upsetting to me and I think I would feel tricked if I encountered it as a par-the-course kind of thing (knowingly or especially unknowingly) in a game.

But- I haven't encountered it yet, and perhaps it could really, really work!

Great find- Cerement's ID is on the dot. They're delightfully bizarre to stumble upon for the first time, aren't they?

Loads of oddball relatives out there as well. I haven't seen this one due to the range being restricted to the west coast (US), but it's completely absurd (Allotropa virgata).

Absolutely. At work I man a tech desk for a big box store (aka helping people who don't or can't understand what email is activate phones), and at home I share responsibility caring for two people who don't have the mental capacity to shut the refrigerator door when they're done finding food. That's...a bigger can of worms than what we're talking about here, but encountering open-and-shut thoughts on how things ought to be (on here) feels like whiplash compared to how I usually have to think through my actions in a day.

...Bearded pigs eat and disperse Pinanga subterranea’s fruits, but we’ve yet to find out how and by whom the flowers are pollinated.

I'm so charmed at the idea of subterranean pollinators

The palm was already known to local people but it had remained unnoticed by scientists, who believe the case highlights the need to collaborate more closely with Indigenous communities.

Say it again for those in the back! Indigenous knowledge is going to be even more important to learn and preserve as modernization presses ever on.

You may enjoy reading about this linguistic offshoot, Missouri French!

I haven't been around much (work, life, you know the drill) but I'd like to say a continued THANK YOU for running Mander. 😄

I use mine consistently, and the presence of one will be a dealbreaker when I choose my next phone. I use it with an AUX cable in my car, wired headphones I already own, and (most importantly) with a Square point of sale thingamajig at shows. Bluetooth options exist for the last thing of course, but they have their own disadvantages- and I'd rather be able to use both options than just one!

Aww, thank you Fossilesque! :) I saw that someone set up a nature drawing community a while back, and I'm curious to see if that user returns before trying to start one of my own.

Very much agreed. I went with a Kobo since I enjoy futzing around with files and already had a Calibre (ebook management software) library going anyway. I highly recommend e-readers of any kind to anyone on the fence!

Yep, seconding what others have said, this looks exactly like my ground cherry plants (aka husk cherry, aka Physalus genus). 😄

I ran the photo through iNaturalist and it suggested a group of flies I've never seen before- broadly Tachinidae, and more narrowly it zeroed in on the genus Adejeania. Seems like a safe guess in terms of location, too!

Same, on my 3a right now. Deeply considering just buying new old stock of the same phone as a backup. :'D

I LOVE their coloration at this stage. What a good find. 😄

Now that's something I've never seen before. And (following @wjs018@beehaw.org's comment) here I thought the pyrography machine I have at home was dangerous enough on its own. lol

o: Yeah woah! Didn't even cross my mind, lol. I'm livin' in the past.