#AI

Lots of thoughts recently. Everything feels plastic.

I could go on and on about why all that AI "art" is bad. I could mention theft, lack of creativity, it's impact on the work field and environment, but countless people have already said all that. I wanted to touch on something that to me is the most utterly wrong about all of it.

Art is more than just something pretty to look at or listen to. It's therapeutic. It's a form of communication. A tool for human connection. It's a pure, human need.

Support real artists ☀️

well look who it is. my old friend. the conses of my quences.

bill pulls out the pregnancy card

Once you start thinking about humans as a species in a biome, it affects your entire way of looking at normal things.

The other day I referred to female morning joggers as an 'indicator species' in that if you see women jogging in the dark it means that the environment provides migration pathways (sidewalks, clear signs) and doesn't have any known predators of female morning joggers (guy with knife, bear, BigTruck, male morning joggers).

Though, I think that people consider framing humans as animals reacting to their environment as rude.

new head cannon. Because horrors eye is not his own it doesn't fit in his head so sometimes it falls out, they will be having dinner and it falls out right into his stew. The others watch in disgust as Horror fishes in his stew, licks the eye clean and puts it back in, continues eating as if nothing happened. Horror can also leave his eye places to either spy on someone or to scare the f outta them. He also puts it in a glass of water by his bed while he sleeps, like dentures.

How The Nocturnal Bottleneck and Nipples Make Us Human

Almost every post here considers what humans do have, really. It’s a little tiring; realistically every world has its harsh environments and vicious species and a sophont to match. We probably wouldn’t be unique for our adaptability or our persistence or even adrenaline

But our evolution is fucked up as hell, to put it lightly.

Mammals went through what’s been dubbed the nocturnal bottleneck essentially since the start of the mesozoic right up until the Cretaceous ended the archosaur’s exclusive hold over the daylight. We lost a lot of things from every mammal spending most of its time in either a cramped, suffocating burrow or scrounging around in the faint hours of nighttime. Our blood cells lost their nuclei to hold more oxygen while we spent time deep underground, we lost protections against ultraviolet rays in our skin and eyes, we can’t even repair our own DNA using the light of the sun. Most aliens probably wouldn’t have such traits unless their evolution followed a very similar path to ours. They’d be able to see ultraviolet and wouldn’t have to worry about sunburn and all the wonderful privileges essentially all fish, birds, amphibians, and reptiles enjoy as we speak. 

There’s also what we gained from spending so much time in the dark.

Brown fat is only found in mammals, it’s a special type of fat which bear cells with several oil droplets and are utterly jammed with mitochondria. This lets it make heat, a lot of it, fast. We don’t even need to shiver to induce this heat generation from brown adipose tissue - factor in our downright hyperactive mitochondria, and we can warm up quickly. Sure, it doesn’t have too much use in adult humans, but it keeps our infants warm and still provides a little boost the whole run we have in this universe.

Unless aliens also went through a time where their small ancestors had to face cold nights, they’d have to produce heat the old fashioned way when chilled. Aliens might have to shiver the whole time they’re in a cold room while the human watches in confusion, quite literally unshaken, and wonders if the room is a lot colder than the thermostat set to 60 says. The aliens stare at their companion in confusion, it’s just a normal temperature to shiver at after all, how is the human sitting so still?

Our small ancestors spending all their time out foraging at night is also why we have such a good sense of touch, smell, and hearing. They were more important senses than vision (we’re lucky to have even redeveloped basic color vision, frankly) at the time and place and simply ended up continuing to serve us well. Birds and reptiles rarely have acute senses of smell and the latter especially are lucky to have acute hearing, and birds rarely have impeccable hearing themselves either. Our skin is free of scales and honed to sensitivity, and our external ears and complicated ear bones provide an immense range of hearing (from 20 all the way to 17,000 hertz!).

Aliens might not be able to pin down the chirp of a cricket or the light click of a lock being picked. The human might be the only one on board a ship that can pick out the finer sounds of the engine’s constant thrum and know the critical difference between when everything is fine and when something is wrong. The human could probably pick out the sounds of an approaching enemy’s careless footsteps - they’re only as light enough for *them* to stop hearing them, after all - and be the one to see the horrified expression (well, more on that later) on their face when we get the drop on them in spite of their perceived stealth. 

But perhaps the most versatile, convoluted, amazing, and utterly unique trait we have is right on your face this instant. Lips.

Lips in most animals are a simple seal to hold in the mouth’s moisture and protect the teeth, even if they’re supple they’re NEVER muscular except in mammals, and we have only one thing to thank for it; milk and nipples. Lips evolved exclusively to allow babies to suckle, it required a vacuum to be created in the mouth, and with no other animal having anything like a nipple it never happened in other animals. Many animals make milk, to be frank, but no other animal has nipples.

Your cheeks and lips are a marvel among tetrapods, no other animal can suck like mammals can. Aliens wouldn’t have straws or even be able to sip from the edge of a glass, they’d have to have a proboscis or simply tilt the whole thing back. Aliens likely won’t have woodwind instruments or balloons you can blow into. We take so much about our lips for granted. Hell, our muscular faces are vital for expressions, we’re probably absolute facial contortionists among a cast of creatures with mandibles and beaks and expressionless scaly maws. Aliens might find us ridiculously easy to read, if anything, compared to their own kind (all the better to deceive them) - or perhaps they’d find us hard to decipher anyways, with our lack of color-changing skin or erectable crests of bright feathers. Baring teeth might not be seen as a sign of aggression in most of the universe, smiling would be all too distinctly human. 

Perhaps with how infectious we are sometimes, that’s what we’d contribute to the universe; others might have to make do with opening their mouths just enough to show their teeth or splaying their innumerable mouthparts with just the right curve, but perhaps we’d teach the galaxy to smile, one ally at a time. 

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

I think very deliberately calling a trans man a "stupid bitch"/"dumb cunt"/"hysterical"/"whiney" (especially when that person never uses such language for cis men) is coded misgendering. Transmascs, I think you should get angrier about it.

I've noticed that when people don't know I'm intersex and think I'm just a regular cis guy, they will almost never use such language for me, even if they hate my guts. That changes the second they learn I'm intersex + have some "female" sex traits (uterus, & breasts notably), or if they believe I'm a trans man.

It is 100% targeted. You aren't overreacting.

Stanley is an absolute asshole and that's one of my favorite parts about him. Like yeah we can talk about his hidden heart of gold and whatnot, how he subtly shows his care for the kids and for his brother, but, like. He's still an asshole.

He has beef with multiple children! (Gideon and Pacifica, at the very least). And he has a reason--- defending his family--- but it's still beef with children! He regularly scams travelers out large amounts of money! He doesn't pay his employees! He insults people to their face! Even if he's doing it out of projection love, he still gives Dipper the short end of the stick, like, all the time. He opens a potentially world-ending portal just to get back his brother--- that's an asshole thing to do!

And this isn't a critique of Stan at all. But his churlish asshole nature is a beautiful part of him that makes him a really fun character. Being a good character doesn't = being a nice character. I'd even argue him becoming nicer isn't--- shouldn't be--- a requirement for his character development post canon. This is a guy who's yelling at other boaters over the radio. This is a guy who undoes your boat's drain plug 'cause you insulted his brother. Stan's a rude, penny-pinching curmudgeon that his family insists is nice deep down because he is--- to them. He don't give a shit about anyone else!

Let Stan be mean, dammit. He deserves it.

heathers + assorted posts

as with my final destination ones of these, i feel like you can easily tell based on this what character i am most deeply unwell about 😭 bonus points if you can guess! 🖤

Lights and Shadows of Cyber City.