___rubidium___

That's a very good question. The child eventually learns to stop using symbols and instead begins to copy the shapes, negative spaces, curves, etc. in front of them and makes an assemblage of otherwise-meaningless shapes, lines, curves which is interpreted by viewers as a representation of the real thing. Does AI have the potential to do that? I don't know.

It's also an American problem. I notice it most in the pressure to have a nice front lawn. In some American neighborhoods, if you don't regularly cut your grass, people will call the police.

I think you're right, but I would qualify that the AI is bullshitting in the same way that a child's drawing of a stick figure, house, and smiling sun is bullshit designed to get approval. The AI is giving symbols--very visually stunning ones, to be sure, but symbols nonetheless--of what it is prompted to create, just like a child learns that "circle with lines coming out of it" is a symbol that can be read as "sun" and praised by adults.

Fascinating. I've noticed the same problem with Midjourney and Nightcafé as well.

OK now I feel like I need a simulator of all possible eclipses by all possible planetary satellites.

Same here. I was pretty upset when the Borders in my city closed; a few years later, the closest B&N to me also shut down. 100% agree with the article writer that bookstores provide a sense of identity. I wonder if we're in the middle of a shift in how the culture chooses to do relationships - maybe the pandemic showed people that, on its own, the internet just isn't able to provide the social framework that people want? I don't know. It's probably too early to tell if all this stuff is a passing fancy, or the beginnings of a new mode of relating.