@mishellbaker@wandering.shop
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mishellbaker

@mishellbaker@wandering.shop

World Fantasy, Nebula, Tiptree finalist repped by Russ Galen. Curator of happiness. Gamer, parent, computer science student, language nerd, cancer brat. Whatever pronouns feel right to you.

My header shows my urban fantasy trilogy - BORDERLINE, PHANTOM PAINS, and IMPOSTOR SYNDROME, against a downtown L.A. backdrop. My profile pic shows an androgynous middle aged white person with buzzed hair, smiling warmly but perhaps a little shyly.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

mishellbaker, to random
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Just had a really nice talk with the family. I don't know how I managed to have two kids who are so wise and mature and functional - I CERTAINLY was not at their ages. 😂

mishellbaker, to random
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I am that doofus who will always ask to be de-tagged from ongoing debates. I understand and respect the need for debate, just as I understand and respect the need for abdominal surgery. I prefer not to spectate either one.

😂

mishellbaker, to random
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Take a break from the world's problems for one day. Turn the camera of your mind toward those things which restore and inspire you. Those things are also true, and also part of the real world. Even fantasy and fiction is created by real humans, by miraculous and unique minds unlike any other.

Your eyes are not "open" if they are ONLY open to troubles.

mishellbaker, to random
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Haha, I have to ask people, because I can't Google it: ARE there any good search engines out there? Ones that still actually search the internet?

mishellbaker,
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And why do I sort of like that my "sad last resort" is asking my friends for recommendations?

Did I really just... stop doing that for thirty years?

mishellbaker,
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@Tiffany Thanks!

mishellbaker,
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@hakamadare If the debate is going to continue can I be de-tagged please?

mishellbaker,
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@hakamadare Thanks! :

Enjoy your day ❤️

mishellbaker, (edited ) to random
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I keep going on about internet search, but it's fascinating to me. I have lived through an age without it, then watched geekdom awkwardly birth it, watched Google turn it into a pinnacle of knowledge-seeking that seemed to make human memory obsolete and earn a near-deserved monopoly, and then the same company, as gradually as the proverbial boiled frog, via the irresistible force of shareholder greed, render their name-making masterpiece so useless it was as though it had become uninvented.

mishellbaker,
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I use it so much less, now. What will people do who don't remember what it was like to have to just... know stuff and remember it?

I am genuinely fascinated, as I have never seen one of mankind's greatest inventions go away for no good reason before. A lot of what my generation and those before believed about how innovation and "the market" works is just turning out to be so untrue.

mishellbaker,
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I don't see it as doom, though. We got along all right before internet search was an easy and reliable way to look anything up.

We'll find a different way of being, and learning, and remembering. We always do, even if no one is making a profit from it.

mishellbaker,
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One guess about a post-"Google it" internet where there are no truly reliable 'hubs" is that we may step back to a 1990s vibe where the internet becomes about links again, sharing good sites you've found. Crawling, link by link, the whole internet becoming a homemade Wikipedia-esque rabbit hole the way it once was. Hoarding bookmarks. Archiving obsessively in case sites get abandoned. Something active a user is good at or not good at, like most research.

mishellbaker,
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Unfortunately this would posit some way for people to make their own pages the way they used to, and between developments in code and developments in corporate ownership I don't know if we can go back to that. So what IS next?

I'm asking, tech savvy folks! And don't say "doom" or some variety of that. That's boring, and we can do better. I want to know what will grow out of this as humanity inevitably innovates and adapts for the sake of innovation and adaptation. That is what humans do.

mishellbaker,
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@henrik You either don't seem to realize I'm asking how humanity recovers from AI pollution of human endeavor or you're trolling. In either case you're clearly not here to engage with me in good faith so I'll say a polite farewell.

mishellbaker, to random
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I miss the days when a search engine would look for what you typed instead what it's pretty sure you meant to type.

mishellbaker,
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@stevendbrewer Ugh, yes.

mishellbaker,
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@yunchtime I've been craving paper too these days.

lynnemthomas, to random
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Headed back to active flexibility class tonight for the first time in several months. This is gonna be rough, but hopefully the kind of rough that leads to progress.

mishellbaker,
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@lynnemthomas You've got this. Glad to hear you're giving it the effort.

mishellbaker, to random
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Bridgerton Season 3 today!! Here's the story I've been waiting for since the start! 8D

mishellbaker,
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(huge penelope fangirl)

mishellbaker,
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Ohhhh, I'm loving it already... so many nice little subplots...

bounces

Thank you Shondaland for making chemo week an actual treat ❤️

mishellbaker, to random
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Anyone who thinks "cancel culture" is some newfangled thing has never read one (1) Regency novel.

Social consequences for certain actions, up to and including complete "ruination," are nothing new.

mishellbaker,
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@jappel oh gosh yes

mishellbaker, to random
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I saw someone here say "LLMs are coming to gmail so we should all get out" - can someone explain to me what this means? I don't really follow "AI" news as it bums me out and there's nothing I can do about it except choose not to use it when possible.

But they're saying it like it's a non-opt-outable security risk, and abandoning gmail at this point would be more stress than I can currently handle, so can someone knowledgeable straighten me out on this supposed security risk? Like I'm four.

mishellbaker,
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@disappearinjon No that is helpful. Just wish I knew for sure how true it was!

mishellbaker,
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@disappearinjon What should I do, other than abandon my 10+ year old gmail account which has essentially become a substitute for my own memory at this point?

mishellbaker,
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@disappearinjon Thanks so much for all the advice. I'll keep my eyes open.

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