Jan 2024: What I'm Thinking About

I want to write more (on here) this year, so I'm going to try to create some structure by posting a "What I'm Thinking About" post at the start of each month. I don't suspect I'll have entirely new ideas at the start of each month, but it'll be a good way to track (and share) some of the ideas I have bouncing around in my head (that I never end up writing about or working on anyways). It might be a good way to get myself to start putting words to some of these ideas in case I actually do anything with them down the line.

Since I usually get too scared to write at all because of the idea of needing to edit and revise, my rule to myself for these posts is just to put words on the page just to get the thoughts out. So what you'll see are first draft (really, pre-first draft) versions of these thoughts.

I also imagine there's a possibility I might get carried away on any given point, so my promise to myself is to write as little as possible, and that it's ok I don't comprehensively cover every detail that I want to, or else I'll just end up writing about a single point for hours...

• Alternate Social Media Platform, Again: As usual, I'm back on Twitter talking about the need for an alternate social media platform. This time it's in response to the earthquake that hit Japan on Jan 1, and how emergency services and breaking news can't spread as easily because of the dismantling of Twitter and the shortcomings of other existing alternatives. I talk a bit about the need for a variety of feeds (chronological and algorithmic), a working API for broadcast services to use, and an explore page (that allows for hashtags but also goes beyond hashtags). I didn't mention mis/disinformation, but (human) moderation is definitely another thing that I think Twitter alternatives need to get right.
  • Over the past few weeks, I've begun to think more seriously about starting a non-profit co-op to work on such an alternative. I'm not sure it's at all feasible, but after saying I want to work on something like this for almost ~2 years now, I think it's time I at least give it a shot...
• Boba Zine? Prior to the pandemic, I had the idea of writing a full-length book on US boba history, filled with interviews, oral histories, archival documents, etc. about the spread of boba in the US. Pandemic hit and that idea went down the drain, both because I didn't feel safe about travelling and because many of the stores I wanted to go to closed down. A lot of history was lost, and I kind of gave up on the book idea. It's been a few years now, and I'm still relatively interesting in writing something about boba, though I feel like for a lot of people, the "trend" has passed. Regardless, I still love boba, and it's not simply a trend to me, and I still want to write about various aspects of it (such as the regional differences between "boba", "pearls", "bubbles", and "tapioca"; the influence of Viet chè on toppings in the US; the origins of boba in the US). Though one day I hope to write a book on this still, I might want to start off simple with something like a free zine.

• Generative AI: It's no secret that I'm really tired of generative AI discussions. Everywhere I look, it feels like I see folks talking about generative AI or hiring folks to focus on it, and like blockchain and NFTs, I'd like us to be past this whole thing already. But there's definitely a lot of work that still needs to happen, to protect artists who are directly being harmed by it today. There's a lot of generative AI news to follow, but the top thing I'll be keeping track of is the ongoing class action lawsuit (Anderson v Stability AI) that's been filed in SF.
  • I also think that we gotta pay attention to what's happening at anime / comic convention artist alleys, because this is where a lot of the latest discourse is happening, with actual, tangible material impacts for artists and institutional-level policies being made. ALA just posted their policy taking a hard stance against generative AI, which I applaud. I think more folks should recognize that beyond academia, tech spaces, and governmental regulation spaces, a lot of sophisticated convos are happening in the anime and comics world, and we shouldn't miss this.
  • My other hot take is that we should never call it "generative art" or "AI art" — the words we use make a tremendous difference in how we think about these issues, and I reject the idea that these are examples of "art." These are AI images for sure, but creating art involves thinking about the entire process and intentionalities.

That's it for now, and I'll try to keep this up for the rest of the year. Since Twitter is a burning mess, I'm going to try to post on here more. I've got a few more posts in mind that I want to write this coming week, so stay tuned!