"Karma Genie" Offers You Two Options. ... Which Option Will You Choose?
Think back on the most devastating act of betrayal you've ever had to suffer from someone you counted on, deeply trusted or loved (i.e., a spouse, family member, business partner, friend or coworker). Consider the ramifications of that act of betrayal, the pain you felt, everything you lost in the process, how long it took you to recover, and how it negatively affected your life going forward.
... Enter "Karma Genie!"
Karma Genie is an all-powerful "metaphysical equalizer" who offers victims of betrayal full and complete compensation for whatever horrific act of betrayal they were forced to suffer by way of offering each victim one of two options:
- The person who betrayed you will experience the same level of pain and suffering they inflicted upon you. They will lose the same amount of whatever was taken from you and be forced to spend an equal amount of time trying to recover from that loss. Their life will be negatively impacted to the same degree that yours was by way of their shameless betrayal. ... In addition, they will know that everything that's happening to them is a direct result of their horrific act of betrayal enacted upon you.
- You are fully compensated for your betrayal through you achieving an amazing accomplishment that you never dreamed was possible, a miraculous life-changing event that brings you unprecedented joy, or a celebrated victory that completely negates the negative effects of that horrific act of betrayal you were forced to endure. You end up completely satisfied with the level of compensation offered; you enjoy the positive effects of your compensation, and your life is returned to its proper balance, ... However, the person who betrayed you will not know the negative impact they had on your life by way of their selfish act of betrayal.
... Which option will you choose?
Your Own Nonexistence is Inconceivable!
... From your very first conscious thought up to the point of reading this post, all you have ever known is Existence. You have never experienced, never known, nor can you even conceive your own Nonexistence. As far as you are concerned, you have always existed.
There is no description of your own nonexistence that you can offer that doesn't require your presence within existence to describe it. You cannot remove yourself from the description.
Should you describe your own nonexistence as being what it was like before you were born, or maybe a thousand years earlier, you are still offering a description that's necessarily coming from a 1st person observer, ... which just happens to be "you!"
Even when placed under anesthesia for several hours, the only experience you can consciously describe is closing your eyes and immediately reopening them. You have no knowledge, comprehension, nor recollection of anything happening during the time in between.
... From your self-aware standpoint, the transition was seamless.
Despite whatever beliefs, theories, ideologies, philosophies or dogmas you embrace, "Existence" is all you have ever known ... and all you will ever know!
Why "Limit" Consciousness, Freedom, Intelligence, Existence and Intent?
... Listed below are arguably the most important characteristics of "Existence" and the battleground of many ongoing debates, and yet our best resources for obtaining reliable knowledge (science, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and biology) cannot state what they are, why they exist, their scope, their limitations, nor how any of them came to be:
- What consciousness is, its scope, nor how / why it emerged
- What self-awareness is, its scope, nor how / why it emerged
- Why we perceive the ability to "freely choose"
- What life is, its scope, nor how / why it emerged
- What intelligence is, its scope, nor how / why it emerged
- Why the universe exists, its scope, nor how / why it emerged
That being said, please answer any or all of the following questions:
Q1: If we don't know what "consciousness" is, its scope, where it comes from, nor why it exists, then why limit it to the confines of a physical brain?
Q2: Since we don't know what "intelligence" is, its scope, where it comes from. nor why it exists, then why believe it isn't a key characteristic of the universe just like matter, energy, fields, space and time?
Q3: If the universe can produce a sentient, self-aware consciousness that perceives the ability to "freely choose" from a series of options, and the origins of life, self-awareness and consciousness remain unknown, then why do you believe "free will" is nonexistent or just an illusion?
Q4: If we demonstrate purpose, meaning and intent on a daily basis but we don't know what they are, their scope, their origin nor why they exist, then why believe they aren't embedded into the fabric of the universe from the very beginning?
Q5: If we observably "Exist;" we can demonstrate our existence, and we cannot comprehend nor conceive our own nonexistence, then why limit our existence to the confines of a physical lifetime?
Note: There are no wrong answers to these questions. This is an exploratory post to better understand how and why people believe in the ways that they do. Your answer is just as good as anyone else's.
... Thanks in advance!
"Decisionism" trumps "Determinism"
>Decisionism: "A decision must be made before any outcome of the decision-making process can emerge. No observable / measurable outcome can happen prior to a decision being made. Outcomes are only observable / measurable after a decision has been made."
... "Decisionism" trumps "Determinism" because determinism is subservient to whatever decision is about to be made. Determinism is rendered powerless. Everything leading up to a decision being made (no matter what) must yield and wait for a decision to be made before any result(s) can happen.
No decision = No outcome
Despite the many determinists' arguments that whatever is chosen was predetermined by prior events (cause and effect), the outcome of those prior events and any other mechanics that the determinists argue are in play must yield and wait for a decision to be made.
That places the power, authority and control of the entire decision-making process solely in the hands of the "decision maker."
NOTE: The only reason a determinist would reject this ideology is because it has zero effect on eliminating free will.
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EDIT 7:20 PM EST: Those of you who are downvoting my OP and my replies must first 'decide" to issue them before they can ever show up on Reddit. Yes, even with your shameless downvoting you are unwittingly demonstrating the supremacy of "Decisionism" over "Determinism."
Shiny Red Button
Scenario: You find yourself eternally existing in a paradise where all of your wants and desires are met by merely wishing for them. There is no pain, suffering, regret nor loss - only joy and happiness beyond compare. However, at the center of this paradise exists a shiny red button with a single rule attached to it: "DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON!" That is the only information you have about this button, and the button is a permanent fixture within this paradise.
... Do you eventually press the button? Yes or No
(Please explain your reasoning)
ChatGPT Alien Character Image Creation (For a Screenplay)
Greetings to the r/ChatGPT subreddit!
... I wrote a screenplay titled "VAXALON" back in 2011. It featured a beautiful female extraterrestrial named Jola. Jola escapes a surprise attack from a predatory species and crash lands on planet Earth. Her goal it to get back to her home world and warn them of an impending attack. She enlists the help of an ex-Marine sniper named William who rescued her from her crashed escape pod. She becomes romantically involved with William as they work together to ensure her safe return (space nookie ensues).
Jola is the main character, and the first image in this slideshow (Image 000). This was the original version I made of her back in 2011. She was constructed using photoshop and conflated body parts pulled from other online images of women.
Fifteen years later I get to revisit my screenplay and build myself a new Jola! ... Here is a breakdown of how these images were created:
- Image 000: Original Jola image from 2011 (not uploaded to ChatGPT until the end to avoid creating bias).
- Image 001: The first image ChatGPT gave me based on my poorly written prompt.
- Image 002: Re-rendered image after explaining to ChatGPT that this isn't a porn movie.
- Image 003: Prompting for larger eyes, thick, coarse hair and less-human appearance.
- Image 004: Better prompting is finally having a positive effect, but still not what I was hoping for.
- Image 005: My best prompt so far, but somehow Jola regressed back into human form with normalized eyes and face. She looks like something out of a Nickelodeon show.
- Image 005A: Since my prompts have been ineffective, I uploaded a drawing I did from 2007 which utilized large eyes, desired facial angle and a facial structure to use for creating Jola.
- Inage 006: ChatGPT goes in a completely new direction based on my drawing - and in a direction that I prefer! However, she's still out of spec for my screenplay character. She needs the hair, the uniform and everything else that's in the screenplay.
- Image 007: I asked ChatGPT to educate me on writing better prompts, ... and it taught me well! I was able to incorporate Jola's hair, hair artifacts, oversize eyes, pensive look and other characteristics from earlier renderings onto this image. However, she's still appearing too stern-looking and unapproachable.
- Image 008: With more ChatGPT prompt-coaching I was able to nail down Jola's look. I even prompted for that sassy little "curl" at the edge of her lips to give her a sassy attitude. From this point forward, I wanted to use this look to build a character sheet with images at different angles.
- Image 009: After widening Jola's face and finalizing her wardrobe, eyes, hair and overall expression, I locked it all down and made this the "anchor image" from which all other Jola images will be constructed.
- Image 010: This is an updated rendering of "Image 008" to reflect the changes made on the now-established "anchor image" (Image 009).
- Image 011: Left-side rendering based on anchor Image 009.
- Image 012: Tossing my 5'9" petite Jola out onto a city sidewalk to see if anyone notices.
- Image 013: Pairing "Captain Jola" up with a taller crewmate onboard their spaceship.
- Image 014: Montage of Jola (center) and two subordinates as a glamor shot.
- Image 015: Having Jola and her science officer stealing plutonium from a nuclear US missile silo as a "prompt learning experiment." I was disappointed with the lack of urgency and their casual demeaner, so I reworked my prompt to include more energy, concern, panic, and urgency.
- Image 016: Better rendering for emotional content, but ChatGPT was struggling with how many plutonium hemispheres to use with a case that only holds TWO of them. It also cannot render the hemispheres flat-side-up. Every prompt I made resulted in flat-side-down hemispheres, ... so I gave up trying.
- Image 017: This was my last prompt which begged for more action, energy and desperation in their thievery of the plutonium. This prompt worked well as they are observably worried and working very fast. ChatGPT strangely tossed in a THIRD plutonium hemisphere and still couldn't flip them in the right direction. I also uploaded an instructional image (Image 018) for how the hemispheres should be placed in the foam-lined case and a USA "star emblem" for the missile, ... but it still didn't work.
- Image 018: This was the instructional image I uploaded for how to deal with the plutonium hemispheres and the star graphic to be placed onto the silo missile. ... It still couldn't get the plutonium right, but it wasn't really that important anyway.
Summary: I am BLOWN AWAY on how powerful ChatGPT and the other AIs are becoming. I can remember my struggles using Photoshop to create my "original" Jola image back in 2011. To see how much more can be accomplished in a fraction of the time is absolutely astounding!
One thing I've learned is to be pedantic in my prompts and cover every possible nuance with overly descriptive wording. I've discovered that "an uploaded image speaks a thousand words" to ChatGPT, so if you get stuck working on a prompt, feed it an image of something similar instead.
Thank you for viewing my post!
... I am an artist, programmer, graphic designer, musician and writer. Proficient in all aforementioned areas - master of none.
When I finished writing my first book back in 2020, no AI was available for anything. The most we had available back then was Autocorrect, MS Word, Final Draft, and pay-apps like "Grammarly."
I had to hire two professional editors from Upwork: one to edit my manuscript and the other to double-check the first editor's work. These editors made numerous phrasing, syntax and consistency suggestions and did an excellent job, but this cost me thousands of dollars and a considerable amount of down time waiting for their edits.
This year I wrote a 55-page "Companion Document" for my book but decided to save some money and assign ChatGPT the role of editor. ChatGPT did an even better job of editing and automatically caught all of my spelling / punctuation errors within seconds!
ChatGPT even adjusted for my many "mood swings."
I would be "mentally worn out" while writing one day and feel like "Vonnegut on meth" the next, but these day-to-day differences in mental alertness showed up within my document. ... That's where ChatGPT stepped in and tightened everything up for better flow and consistency.
So, here are my questions:
- ChatGPT saved me thousands of dollars in editing, allowed me to make real-time edits, and none of it ended up as "slop." My document turned out exactly as I wanted, ... so why would I NOT want to use ChatGPT going forward?
- I do programming using "Asymetrix Toolbook II Instructor" open-script programming language, which is grossly outdated now, but ChatGPT still knows how to code using this outdated language - which has saved my ass! Why would anyone choose NOT to use ChatGPT for programming assistance?
- If the end product that ChatGPT hands you turns out to be exactly as you envisioned, then why would you choose NOT to use it for future work?
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Summary: There seems to be an unfair stereotyping of ChatGPT, and anything with ChatGPT's fingerprints on it—even if it's only for editing—gets labeled as "AI slop." If ChatGPT is writing an entire story from scratch, then yah, ... that's not right. But why are we unfairly lambasting a powerful editing / scripting tool just because "some" people choose to abuse it?
Is it really right to attach the "Scarlet AI" label to anything that's even remotely touched by ChatGPT?