@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
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ZachWeinersmith

@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social

The SMBC guy.
New book: A City on Mars (Nov 2)

Co-author of Soonish
Illustrator of Open Borders
Scop of Bea Wolf.

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ZachWeinersmith, to random
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So, one lens on the weird direction of the modern Internet is that entities created to route you to cool stuff, e.g. search, social media, have especially in the last 5-10 years been taking an ever larger part of the pie via having giant networks. Google can now control whether a news site lives or dies. Meta can take 99.5% of all ad revenue displayed next to an artist's work and they have no power.

Long-term effect? Damage to the creative class.

ZachWeinersmith,
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One big mystery to me is why YouTube, which is run by demonstrable rent-seeker Google, nevertheless gives creators close to 50% of ad rev by their stuff. The result? The most vibrant online creation scene. Not to say it doesn't have loads of issues and bullshit, but you really get high production value stuff, creating a virtuous cycle.

But most sites don't do this, so in addition to harming good things like arts and journalism, they're harming their own food source.

ZachWeinersmith,
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To my mind it'd be like if there were a bunch of cool shops and displays but you had to walk to them. Then someone comes along and creates a perfect trolley system. Win for everyone until all users are using only a single trolley service. That service then keeps raising the price, making it so most of the money in the wallet goes to the trolley, not the cool shops and displays. Eventually that has to have an effect on trolley usage. How that ends up shaping the Internet, I don't know.

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
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Wake

Horrifying bonus panel here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/energy-2

#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #love #fantasy

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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So, 10-year-old started learning how to convert things to scientific notation, and at first I was skeptical of what the point was, but it's surprisingly good for solidifying ideas about how to push exponents around.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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Could just be my weird local cohort, but have you noticed this linguistic thing with youngish kids where they preface statements, almost like a comic header? E.g. instead of "I think [explanation about thing]" it's "What I think about [thing]: [explanation]." So, like, instead of "I think what's going on is that the cat is shy because she lived in the wild" you hear "What I think about the cat: she's shy because she lived in the wild."

ZachWeinersmith,
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It seems to me to have something to do with memes presented for comic effect. E.g. instead of saying "I felt like AAAA" you say "What I felt like: AAAA"

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
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Mathematics

The shocking bonus panel is available here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/mathematics-2

#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #math

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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Hey media dorks--

How do you think the switch from passive to active TV consumption has affected the medium? I wonder if it helps explain the rise of infinite sequels and catering to fandoms?

ZachWeinersmith,
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@unlucio I mean back in the broadcast days you channel hopped a minute then found something to watch. Now you select what you watch in particular.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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Just this last December, the US had more photovoltaic shipments than all of 2011, at 1/5 the price.

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
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Ethics
Bonus panel here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/ethics-5 #smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #graph

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
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Consciousness
Full comic here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/consciousness-5

#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #ai

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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My wife is now sharing the worst facts

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7JslqvOZZM/?hl=en

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
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The rant nobody asked for.

Full comic here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/myth-2

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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Working on Bea Wolf 2. This is why I get paid those big poetry dollars

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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10-year-old told me today that chanting things, e.g. "eat the worm!" or whatever was a distinctly boy activity.

What are weird some things your kids have perceived as gendered?

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
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I solved ethics. Full comic here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/consequent
#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #philosophy

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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Nice longform literary style interview I did recently, touching on Bea Wolf and related topics. https://lanceschaubert.org/2024/05/16/zach-weinersmith-interview/

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
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Full comic here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/sum
#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #philosophy

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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For Bea Wolf 2 I converted the "this is the song that never ends" song to Old English style verse. Don't think I'll end up using it, so I give it to you:

This song is unstopping, ceases never
Ongoing my friends, onward always,
Some sang it, seeing not its nature
So too I sing, senseless of how
This song is unstopping...

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Full comic here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/hands-down
#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #ai

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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Longer review of our book, by Carmack. I'm pretty geeked out. Also it's a kind of review I quite like, which is that he seems to be pretty opposed to several of our positions, but still thinks we did a good job: https://x.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1791531987490029864

ZachWeinersmith, to random
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Separate from the meat of this discussion, the opening discussion of what International Law is and means is so excellent: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/17/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-asli-bali.html

With A City on Mars we kept having to say "international law is REAL, but it's not domestic law" to people who insist it doesn't exist.

ZachWeinersmith, to comics
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

AI
http://smbc-comics.com/comic/ai-12

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