Laughter

I read an article on the internet today about laughter padding. This is when you do a little laugh at the beginning and end of what you say to soften it. For example: Ha ha, I’m actually not a fan of that, ha ha. It’s a natural reflex or defence for many of us if we have a difficult message to put across. The article was agin it, particularly at work. It may make you sound unsure of yourself, insufficiently assertive. You need to slow down and just say what you have to say without embellishment. It may be reducing your effectiveness and hindering your career.

The advice was American, and it struck me as fundamentally unBritish. In our culture the most important thing is to have a socially acceptable manner. If that makes you less effective at work, then too bad, and so much the worse for work. Some things are more important than work. (Obviously this is a generalisation. There are many Brits out there who would take this advice.)

The other beef I had with the article was the word assertive, because there’s a big paradox tied up with the way it’s often used. You modify your behaviour according to what some psychologist tells you, in order to become more assertive. Would it not, in fact, be more assertive to go your own way and ignore the psychologist? Those who peddle assertiveness are trying to get you to change your priorities from those that come naturally to you to those the peddler of assertiveness thinks are important. I assert my right to be exactly as I am!

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Generation Z is apparently going to bed at 9 pm. Generation Alpha retires at midnight, just to be different. Generation Beta reverts to 9 pm. Generation Gamma sleeps in a hammock. Generation Delta gets pissed in Wetherspoons and staggers home drunk. Carbs give you energy in 1945. They make you fat in 1960. They’re a valuable source of roughage in 1980. They make you fat again in 2024. They are a superfood in 2040. Enough already. These things only matter if you imagine you’ll be as good as dead in 15 years. But there’s another world beyond those 15 years whose inhabitants are laughing at you, and the volume of that laughter is not necessarily proportional to the number of years that have elapsed. These things only matter if you imagine yourself living at the end of days, after which there is no more laughter.

Thailand, Switzerland and The Science

I see a lot of TikToks filmed by Brits living in Thailand, and they make me curious about a country I’ve never visited. So much so that I’ve begun doing my own research on Thailand.

The TikTok algorithm repeatedly throws up the same type of content creator, and one such person documents his car-crash life for all the world to see. He makes loud scenes in public, in aeroplanes and airports for the most part. You really don’t want to do that in a land that places such a high value on dignified public conduct, say older and wiser TikTok expats. Carry on like this and you’ll get your comeuppance from the Thais, they warn. The man runs a business in Thailand and flaunts his wealth. A photograph exists of him, aged circa 16, and standing next to Nigel Farage, though he now claims to have lost all interest in politics. He has a likeable side to him, and I can even forgive the Farage incident. But the aeroplane stuff. Deary me.

Anyway my own research on the dos and don’ts of Thailand has taught me that the Thais have a thing about feet. You mustn’t point at anything with them or put them up on a table or touch anyone with them. Don’t touch anybody’s head either. With your hands, I presume. Fair enough. I doubt I’d ever touch anybody’s head and I don’t tend to point at things with my feet. Nor have I ever understood what people get out of putting their feet up. Have I missed out on some huge source of pleasure all my life? I reckon I’d fit in anyway. Below are some other TikTok genres.

Americans in the UK looking at UK-USA differences In one of these videos an American calls Brits Sir or Ma’am to attract their attention. Another Brit then tells them that we don’t do that, which of course we don’t. But they also imply that the Sir or Ma’am will somehow offend us, which puzzles me. Sir and Ma’am do sound odd here, but any Brit with half a brain will detect the American accent, understand the situation and make allowances in an instant. Are the guidebooks overdoing the Thai foot solecism in the same way? Are they even patronising the Thais by overdoing it? We have to humour these exotic people with their strange customs. But maybe the Thais can stand back from this situation, just as we can. Still, I’d follow the Thai foot advice if I ever went there, to be on the safe side.

American ignorance of the outside world Somebody asks an American to point to Switzerland on an outline map of Europe, and they fail. Okay, but can you point to Vermont on a map of the USA? says the American to a Euro-person. The Euro-person then says, You can’t compare Switzerland (a country) with Vermont (a region within a country), and so it goes on. The American could have made it more challenging. Show me Ohio on a map! they could have said. After all, you need to choose a landlocked state to make a fair comparison with a landlocked country. I can see both sides of this. On the one hand, the Euro-person has a strong argument from a politico-cultural point of view. On the other, Vermont and Switzerland are geographic equals in their respective continents. (But the Euro-person might then argue that politics and culture play a large part in determining geographic significance.) The whole thing has made me realise that young TikTokers can be as pedantic as oldies.

My final theme has little to do with TikTok and more to do with X/Twitter where, for some reason, I have a timeline full of people showing off their high-grade medical masks. They talk about how they follow The Science (their God) as opposed to The Sky Fairy (the Christian God). They fancy themselves in mortal peril and can’t understand why others don’t feel the same. Everybody’s in denial! they say. The pandemic took these hypochondriacs to the brink, and the American culture war gave them the final shove into Loopyland. They imagine The Science can tell you how to live your life whereas it can only give you data. You have to make the final decision yourself. The science of meteorology cannot tell you whether you should go for a walk this afternoon. It can only tell you the probability of rain. But you may not care about rain. You may feel you just have to get out of the house.

Gaslighting

Me I’m writing a blog post about gaslighting. Can you supply me with an image to accompany the post? ChatGPT I’ve created a conceptual artwork to accompany your blog post on gaslighting. The image metaphorically represents the psychological concept, highlighting the themes of confusion, manipulated reality, and the struggle to discern truth from deception.

So ChatGPT kindly generated the above image. It also generated a paragraph of embedded text within the image.

A conceptual artwork depicting the psychological concept of gaslighting. The image should be metaphorical, showing a person holding a dimly lit lantern, surrounded by shadows, trying to navigate through a dense fog. The fog represents confusion and uncertainty, while the dim lantern symbolizes the manipulated reality and limited perception caused by gaslighting. The person’s expression is one of determination yet bewilderment, embodying the struggle of discerning truth from deception. The setting is ambiguous, further emphasizing the theme of uncertainty and the difficulty in finding clarity.

The image puzzles me a little. Who is doing the gaslighting? Is it the man with the lamp? If so, why is he bewildered? Surely the weird guys in the Bolivian-style bowlers should be the bewildered ones?

The use of the word gaslighting puzzles me too. I can understand its origin in the 1944 film Gaslight. In that movie a husband manipulates his wife into believing she is losing her mind. For example, he dims the gaslight in their house and then denies that the light has changed. There has to be a power imbalance for it to make sense, and in this case we have a married couple with no external arbiter of truth. In such a situation one person can, over time, gain dominance and play mind games with the other. But I frequently hear it used in situations where that dominance or imbalance hasn’t had time to develop, or doesn’t exist. Often all that’s happened is that one person has said something another person doesn’t think is true. Perhaps they’ve also tried to convince the other person it’s true. You’re gaslighting me! This isn’t gaslighting. Not yet, and maybe never. If the two people are equal in faculties and mental vigour it is simply a disagreement. But what if one party in an argument insists that their way of looking at things is the only way? Does that make it gaslighting? I don’t think so. If it’s a question of emotions, taste, approach to life etc it just means that person is foolish to be so dogmatic. If it’s a matter of objective fact they may be justified in insisting on their truth. People even use the word in connection with the utterances of politicians. Now we all know that politicians lie so there’s no possibility of gaslighting. If you call it gaslighting you’re essentially saying you’re gullible. Admittedly they may be gaslighting somebody more credulous than you. It isn’t gaslighting if you merely try to get somebody else to see things your way, though it may be a waste of time. And if you’re savvy enough to use the word gaslighting, you can’t be gaslit.

Removals and Storage

Me: What do you make of the above photo? ChatGPT: The photo depicts a large, black advertisement board for a removals and storage company named HELLIER’S. The sign includes the services offered and contact information, featuring a phone number. This board is placed in front of a building with a red brick wall to the left and a tiled roof structure in the background, indicating that the photo might have been taken in a residential or semi-commercial area. The sky is partly cloudy, suggesting variable weather, and the light indicates it might be either early morning or late afternoon. The board’s placement and large, bold lettering are designed to catch the attention of passersby and drivers. The barrels beneath the sign add a rustic or utilitarian touch to the scene.

Recently I came across the acronym RISEN (Role Instructions Steps End Narrow). It seems you get better results from ChatGPT if you include these five elements in the prompts you give it. RISEN helps those who want ChatGPT to do their writing for them, whereas I want the reverse. I want the AI to prompt me to write.

The photo has fooled ChatGPT a little. It has mistaken the side of a removal van for a large black advertisement board. It’s also interpreted the row of houses behind the van as a single building. And why does it think that the part-cloudy sky suggests variable weather? In the UK we often have clouds even during settled spells. The early morning or late afternoon deduction impresses me. I assume the AI has based it on the reddish light on the wall and roofs. It has done well to detect that, given their already reddish hue. (Plus I made the photo a little bluer when I edited it, thereby further confusing the issue.) Do the shadow lengths also give the AI some clues about the time of day?

I upload most of my UK photos to a site that assigns them to the 1-km grid squares of the Ordnance Survey. The site has a geographical purpose: to illustrate what one sees on the OS map using submitted images. The site moderators may well reject this photo on account of its advertising content, though you could argue that many street scenes also advertise businesses. The tall boxy brick building on the left intrigues me. It stands about twice as high as the van. Why do the removers need the extra headroom? Does it provide the storage element in removals and storage? Partridge Green makes me think of my satnav, which pronounces it Part Ridge Green. In fairness it copes well with most placenames and only messes up a few. For example it pronounces Hickstead (the famous show jumping ground) as Hickthtud. We talk about moving house, so why do such businesses use the word re-movals? Granted you remove stuff at one end. But at the other you insert it. The AI has done well to notice and appreciate the rusty barrels. They do indeed add something to the scene. Do drivers find it difficult to see the wire fence in poor light? Do the barrels serve as a warning not to drive straight through it? But why do I seek an implausible practical reason for the barrels’ presence? The person who put them there may have the same aesthetic sense as me.

Presuming Ed

I took the above photo in Brighton UK. This time, rather than asking ChatGPT a straightforward question such as Where was it taken? or What do you make of it? I asked it to write a story based on the photo. There were people in the bottom quarter of the original image that I showed to ChatGPT. I’ve cropped them out for reasons that will become clear.

The AI starts by making a big thing of the colourful walls, as you’d expect. This is a vibrant city and everybody who passes is struck by the murals. The scene is an eclectic mix of old and new, and so on. It remarks on the strong light reflected by the windows. That is indeed one of my favourite things about the photograph. It then goes on to say that the cafe (which is housed in the colourful building) serves coffee and the occasional pastry. (Why occasional?) It is a hub for gossip and camaraderie. I can’t say whether that’s true, but it’s perfectly plausible. In fact I’ve just found the cafe on Facebook. (If you look carefully, you can make out its name on the photo: Presuming Ed.) Their FB page states that

Ed is in all of us. It is a beautiful space for ugly people; or is it an ugly space for beautiful people.

ChatGPT describes the weather. It is a day of sunshine and moving clouds, which ties in with my memory of it. Then it starts to talk about the people that I cropped out, a man and a woman, both walking away from the camera. The man in reality had a motorbike helmet on his head and there was another man standing behind him. The AI has melded these two into one person, for it says that the man has the helmet tucked under his arm. The man pauses, it says, to admire the giant headphones painted on the wall, which remind him of his nights DJ-ing in underground clubs. That mural looks like a space helmet to me, but I can see why the AI might interpret the helmet’s visor as a headphone. The woman is deep in thought. She works in an art studio just beyond the cafe. They both make for the cafe entrance where their paths cross. The man holds the door open for the woman. Their eyes meet, and all other thoughts fall away. According to ChatGPT they end up sitting at adjacent tables. It gives the impression that this happens by chance, but I’d say at least one of them engineered it that way.

The man’s sketches of sound waves and the woman’s blueprints of sculptures mingle in the air between them.

I’m trying to picture that. Would a DJ sketch sound waves? He might often have seen them displayed electronically on his DJ-ing equipment, but why would he sketch them? And why would these things mingle in the air between them? Maybe the woman gets her paperwork out and the man thinks Two can play at that game! so he whips out his sound-wave sketches. But how are they mingling in the air? Perhaps they’re doing it metaphorically, or something. Or maybe somebody opens the cafe door and a gust of Brighton wind wafts the whole lot up. They get into conversation anyway, initially about the mural on the outside of the building which, it seems, was a collaboration between local artists, one of whom was the woman. The conversation then moves on to

the rhythms that the man still feels pulsing through his veins, even if his DJ days are behind him.

I see a bulging tattooed forearm. Tachycardia.

Hours slip by unnoticed as they explore each other’s worlds, their laughter spilling out and mingling with the clinking of cups and the soft murmur of the cafe.

Hours? I wonder how many coffees they bought during that time? Anyway, the cafe continues to be their regular rendezvous. It is

the starting place of shared mornings and the refuge of many dusky evenings.

Dusky evenings? Isn’t that like saying dusky dusks?

The vibrant walls become a symbol of their lives … distinct, colorful, and yet part of a greater whole. And as the seasons change and the mural evolves with new layers of paint, so does their story, painting its own hues in the canvas of time.

Hmm

Old Building, Solitude, Contemplation

ME What do you make of the above photograph? ChatGPT The photograph depicts a monochrome scene of what appears to be an abandoned rural building, possibly a farmhouse or barn. The lack of color adds a somber, timeless quality to the image. The building’s brickwork and architectural style suggest it may be quite old, and the disrepair, visible in the broken window and overgrown vegetation, implies it has been neglected. The sky is overcast, with streaks possibly from airplanes, which contrasts with the old-fashioned feel of the building, introducing a layer of complexity to the scene; it’s a mix of the old and the forgotten with the distant but present modern world. Compositionally, the power lines create leading lines that draw the viewer’s eye across the photograph, adding a layer of depth and connection to the otherwise isolated structure. The fence in the foreground could symbolize a barrier, adding to the sense of abandonment and isolation. Overall, the image evokes a sense of solitude and perhaps nostalgia, inviting contemplation about the past uses of the building and the stories it might hold.

Anybody who reads my blog will know that I’ve been making increasing use of ChatGPT. So far I’ve mainly employed it to generate human-AI interactions or dialogue, with me as the human. I’ve prompted it with text or an image, it’s responded, and I’ve commented on its response. I’ve also used it to generate images using a text prompt. In this post you see a third use, in that the title comes from ChatGPT. ChatGPT assigns titles to all the so-called conversations in its archive, until you delete them. I’m in two minds about Old Building, Solitude, Contemplation. I may not allow the AI to do my titling again.

I took the photograph a few weeks ago and then converted it to monochrome. It shows a farm outbuilding in Sussex UK. I’m not sure how abandoned it is. I imagine the farmer uses it for some purpose, for storing something that isn’t too fussy about where it lives. The AI talks about the effect of monochrome on the mood of the photograph, a subject I wrote about recently. Its remarks cover the same ground as some of the points I made in that post. It uses the word sombre where I used dramatic. It talks about timeless where I talked about nostalgic and numinous. I doubt the building is old by Old World standards, 150 years at the most, but you do indeed sense neglect. The uneven brickwork suggests that the builders used whatever bricks they had to hand. The sky looks cloudy in the black-and-white image, but it was blue in the original colour version. Contrails form above 8000 metres, so you wouldn’t see them on an overcast day. They’re likely from planes heading into or out of Heathrow and Gatwick.

I recently discovered an app that tells you what flights are passing overhead. I’d seen it recommended in a newspaper article about Alastair Humphreys, whose new book Local describes his exploration of the mundane square kilometres near his house. The book sounds interesting and I’ll probably buy it.

The AI’s musings on the power lines and fence seem a little fanciful. I guess you have to remember that AI is trained on real-world text, and people often say these sorts of things when commenting on photographs and paintings. The same goes for the fence symbolising a barrier. The fence is a barrier. Is the AI saying that the image is a metaphor, that I had a non-physical barrier in mind when I created the image? (I didn’t.) Or is it saying the photo will cause the viewer to contemplate non-physical barriers? I doubt that would happen. The only barrier-related emotion I can make myself feel is frustration caused by exclusion from private land. The sense of abandonment and isolation is illusory. This building isn’t in the middle of Kansas or the Great Plains. There are other buildings and a well-used public footpath nearby.

I feel I may have been too dismissive of the AI’s words, because they are true in essence. The image is evocative, and ChatGPT has done well to recognise that. I particularly like the broken panes and the line of bare winter trees. And I do wonder, as with any work of man, why somebody went to the trouble of constructing it in the first place.

GeoGuessr2

ME Where in the world do you think the above photo may have been taken? ChatGPT This image depicts a street lined with terraced houses and parked cars on either side. The architectural style of the houses, with their bay windows and pitched roofs, along with the vehicles’ design and license plates, suggest that this could be a street in the United Kingdom. The hills in the background are also indicative of the varied topography that can be found in some parts of the UK. However, without more specific details, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact location. The style of the buildings, the layout of the street, and the vehicle models are all consistent with what one might find in many urban areas within the UK.

I took this photo in Brighton, on the south coast of England. So the AI got the country right, as I expected it would. A human who knows the UK might have narrowed it down to the south of England (or Wales). In a hilly area in the north, at least some houses would be of stone. The image isn’t technically perfect. It’s not as sharp as it might be. In that respect it reminds me of those blown-up photos you sometimes see on restaurant or cafe walls. (I took it with an iPhone 13 using x3 zoom.) But this isn’t about technicalities. It’s about the emotions evoked, which are positive for me. Living on a road like this with human life buzzing around you could be pleasant or annoying, depending on your mood. Out of your bedroom window you might have a view of those hills, or even the sea. There are no seagulls in the picture, though their calls fill the air in Brighton. It’s a cluttered scene, which doesn’t always appeal, yet it does in this case. Perhaps it reminds me of something in my childhood, an avenue where I used to play. Why does ChatGPT talk about bay windows? They are a British thing, I think, but I see few (if any) in this photograph, except the ones at the bottom of the road. But those are rectangular, and my idea of a bay window is round. (Research on Google reveals that I may be mistaken.) Also I don’t see any resolvable licence plates though some rear ones have a hint of yellow. I can’t see how the cars otherwise look British, unless our cars typically come in different colours. (A quick search tells me that black is big in the UK at the moment and white is on the up.) American cars would be bigger on average, I suppose. The photograph does overall shriek UK, and that is chiefly down to the houses. It’s odd that so many of the cars are parked facing the wrong way round for a country where we drive on the left, but the density of roadside parking may also suggest a UK location.

Compared with the wholesomeness of all-stone, all-brick or whitewash, I see something disreputable and disorderly in houses with a mix of render and brick, something at one with the reputation and history of Brighton, abode of the Prince Regent and his mistress, co-respondents, thespians, gays, and prostitutes plying their trade in basement flats. It’s a mucky, washday, blustery disorder that many people love and a few probably hate.

GeoGuessr

ME What does the above photograph show? ChatGPT The photograph shows a double-decker bus, recognizable by the distinct upper deck windows. The bus is blue, with the lower deck visible through the windows. Inside, we can see rows of empty seats on both levels, suggesting the photo was taken at a time when the bus was not in service or had few passengers. The upper deck has light-colored seats with blue trim, and the windows reflect the surrounding environment. The reflection shows a mix of modern and older architectural styles in the buildings, under a clear sky. The upper part of a lamppost is also visible in the reflection. The bus appears to be stationary, as it is parked next to a curb where a dark sedan car is also parked.

In fact the photo shows a single-decker bus parked at Horsham Bus Station in Sussex UK. The AI has wrongly interpreted the buildings as reflections in the upper deck windows. The glass through which I took the photo has created artefacts suggesting reflection, which may have caused the confusion. I took the photo while sitting on another bus, so I wonder if my bus’s window frame also confused it. (It shows as a black band about two-thirds of the way up.)

ME Where in the world do you think the photo may have been taken? ChatGPT The bus in the photograph has a design that is commonly associated with the United Kingdom, particularly the style of the double-decker bus and the ‘First’ logo, which is a company operating buses in the UK. Additionally, the architecture of the buildings reflected in the bus’s windows, the design of the lamppost, and the registration plate on the car, which appears to be a yellow rear plate, also suggest that this is in the UK, as this style of plate is typical there. It’s important to note that these are general indicators and buses similar to this one could potentially be found in other locations around the world, especially in cities with British influence or where British buses have been exported. However, based on the available visual clues, the UK would be a reasonable guess.

I like to ask ChatGPT the above question because it often notices clues that have eluded me: in this case, the yellow rear number plate. (I can’t see the First logo that it mentions.) The lamp post does indeed look typical of the UK, I suppose, but the modern buildings don’t help a great deal. You might say they point to the UK, Netherlands, Ireland and so on. But why not New Zealand, or the USA? ChatGPT doesn’t mention the roof of the older house visible above the rear of the bus. That looks like Horsham stone to me, which you often see in Sussex. The car clinches it for sure, though somebody could in theory have driven a UK-registered vehicle to a non-UK location, or imported it. And you might find a stationary car on the left-hand side of the road even in a country where they drive on the right.

All this reminds me of an article I read in the Guardian a couple of months ago, about the GeoGuessr World Cup in Stockholm, in which the competitors have to guess the exact locations in the world of Google Street View photos. Some of the best guessers can place photos to within a few metres, incredible as it may seem. Sherlock Holmes-style deduction plays a part, but top-level players rely just as much on overall vibes. We all have this sixth sense for own country but, by doing their homework, they have acquired it for all countries.

Seahorse Branch

ME What does the above photograph show? ChatGPT The photograph displays a close-up view of a tree with a section of its branch broken off. The break is jagged, exposing the lighter inner wood against the darker outer bark, creating a stark contrast. Patterns on the bark and the shapes formed by the breakage may allow for imaginative interpretations, but at its core, it’s an image of a damaged tree branch.

The picture in fact shows the aftermath of a heavy-duty trimmer used on the bushes on one side of a public footpath. ChatGPT isn’t too specific about how the branch might have been damaged – which is fair enough. The deep, almost-orange colour of the exposed wood and the resemblance to an animal head both caught my eye and drew me in to photograph it. I’d presented this image to ChatGPT before. The first time, I hadn’t cropped it so much. I’d also asked what animal it resembled. This is why ChatGPT mentions the imaginative interpretations, showing that it retained a memory of my previous question. On that first occasion it had suggested a deer’s head. I see a seahorse there too.

I love that no question is too trivial or boring for ChatGPT. It will try its best with whatever you throw at it. It sees, if not heaven in a grain of sand, at least plenty of earth. It has a personality: that of an earnest and conscientious fellow who allows himself a little levity occasionally.

Journal

Today I discovered an app called Jounal on my phone. I hadn’t downloaded it. It must have appeared following an update. Anyway the app encourages you to keep a journal by suggesting things to write about, and I thought this might prove useful since I sometimes struggle to find inspiration. Among other things, the app looks at your photographs and videos. It sees the places you’ve visited and gets an idea of what you’ve done there. Based on that information it then gives you journalling suggestions. It also proposes other random topics. So let’s take today’s suggestions.

The app notices that I’ve photographed a sheep during a walk. (I’d wanted to show the photo to ChatGPT in order to identify the breed. Hebridean, came the reply.) Anyway, the app suggests I write some more about that walk. Well, it doesn’t know this, but I hadn’t gone out looking for sheep. Rather I spent much of the ramble using another app called Merlin, which identifies birds from their songs and calls. It listens to the birdsong and lists all the birds it can pick out in the recording. If you leave it on for a minute or two, you may end up with half a dozen species. It then highlights birds in the list when they contribute to the birdsong choir, so you see them flashing on and off in real time as they sing. It sometimes picks up birds you had no idea lived in your locale. The other evening, for example, it registered a firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus). I had no way of verifying the identity of such a tiny, distant bird in poor light, but the ultra-high pitch seemed right for a diminutive creature. It made the following additional journalling suggestions.

Describe something you appreciate about yourself that others might not notice. That sounds icky – like some kind of therapy of the Gratitude Diary variety. A comfort blanket like that would make me feel weaker and more anxious.

Recall a new idea you had recently. What led to that idea, and how can you make time for those things? Well, you led me to this, and every blog post arises from a new idea. One will always make time for something one finds interesting or important.

Who’s the wisest person you’ve ever met, and why? I don’t go in for hero worship. Instead I aim for self-sufficiency. My own wisdom places an upper limit on all perceptible wisdom. A wiser person’s higher wisdom will go over my head, so how will I then perceive it or gain from it?