Adam Norwood

Tag: creativity

  • Dave Karpf: On Generative AI and Satisficing
    Visit the source: davekarpf.substack.com

    In contrast to the flood of hyperbolic pieces about ChatGPT and other LLM-based AI (“It will revolutionize productivity!” / “It will destroy all creative fields!”), I appreciate Dave Karpf’s pointing out that these things are really best thought of as cliche generators, and that in some contexts it’s OK for the results to satisfice:

    The AI isn’t going to give you the optimal Disney World itinerary; It’s going to give you basically the same trip that everyone takes. It isn’t going to recommend the ideal recipe for your tastes; it’s just going to suggest something that works.

    And that sounds great, because both of those tasks are obnoxious time-sinks. (Yes, please, recommend a basic meal that my kids might eat! Offer me the same bog-standard Disney vacation that everyone else eventually settles on!)

    , , , , ,

  • Brian Moriarty Listen

    Game designer Brian Moriarty delivered quite a talk at the 1997 Game Developers Conference, touching on everything from interaction design, emergent play, community-created art, creativity, self expression, and even an unexpected but interesting tangent about 101 Dalmatians. In hindsight, many of subjects he talks about would become evident over the next decade, from the Sims to Etsy to Minecraft to social networking. From Listen! The Potential of Shared Hallucinations:

    Before we can learn, before we can grow, we have to be prepared to listen.

    What does it mean, to listen?

    The word is commonly understood to mean “attentive hearing.”

    It has its etymological origin in the archaic verb, list.

    “List!” they used to say. “Ssh! List! The wild boar is outside!”

    But the verb “list” also means to tilt something to one side.

    When a sea vessel leans to starboard or port, it is said to be listing.

    So how did the word “list” turn into the verb “listen?”

    Because when we try to hear something, we sometimes cock our heads in the direction of the sound.

    So to listen means more than to hear attentively.

    The word also implies a change of inclination.

    A new slant.

    To listen is to put ourselves into a receptive attitude.

    A position to be re-aligned.

    Also worth reading (the talk is also available for watching as a video in the GDC Vault) if you fondly remember the days of Hypercard, MUDs, and when text adventures reigned supreme on AOL, or if you like crazy 1990s Photoshop anaglyphs…

    , , , , , , , , , , , ,

  • Daydreaming

    And as she lost consciousness of outer things, and her name and her personality and her appearance, and whether Mr. Carmichael was there or not, her mind kept throwing up from its depths, scenes, and names, and sayings, and memories and ideas, like a fountain spurting over that glaring, hideously difficult white space, while she modelled it with greens and blues. On daydreaming as a means to get past the terror of the blank canvas. From Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse.
    , , , , ,