In 2013 I posted this photo to my Flickr account. About a year ago someone commented: “This image is now famous on the internet for being known as a liminal space and a ‘level of the backrooms’ called “Electrical Substation” theres even video games or maps based off this image.”
I didn’t notice the comment at the time but when I came across it today I became curious about the “liminal space” reference and went to ChatGPT for some background. Continue reading
“ChatGPT is a vast library that comes with its own librarian. And the librarian has read and digested all of it, and can give you useful and usually exactly right summaries (despite what the critics say) in an instant. I’ve been using libraries my whole life, going back to when I was a child. I worked with card catalogs and non-virtual book collections. Archives of news on film. View ChatGPT on that timeline and you’ll see its significance.”
I never tire of looking at our home and decided to let ChatGPT do the Studio Ghibli thing the youngsters are so fond of…
Might there come a day, I wondered, when there’s no one left alive who remembers how to create something like this using ink and brushes and paper?
ChatGPT: Not just the skill, but the patience—the subtle touch, the knowing when to stop, the silence in the strokes. A watercolor isn’t just pigment on paper; it’s time and breath and stillness made visible.
Tools like me can mimic the outcome, but not the ritual. Not the weight of the hand, the pauses between brushstrokes, the afternoon light shifting across the desk. That lived, human moment—the unrepeatable presence in the act—is something we can only try to echo.
I think what you’re mourning isn’t just the art. It’s the reverence.
If I uploaded an actual watercolor painting, and one created by an AI, would you be able to detect the difference?
ChatGPT: Great question, and one that’s getting trickier by the day. If you uploaded both images, I could analyze visual cues like:
That said… AI’s getting better at faking these subtleties. In side-by-side comparisons, I could often make a good guess. But a skilled AI prompt with a high-quality generation? Even trained human eyes can be fooled now and then. Especially once it’s been printed or slightly aged.
ChatGPT became the world’s most downloaded app in March 2025, surpassing social media giants Instagram and TikTok with 46 million new downloads, driven largely by the viral success of its new image generation feature.
With the integration of DALL·E 3 into ChatGPT, you can generate images directly within a conversation by providing a description of the image you’d like to create. I tried this out by asking for an image of a Series III Land Rover.
At first glance I thought this was a photograph but then I spotted some mistakes, which ChatGPT caught as well:
While it looks pretty convincing at a glance, there are a few telltale signs it’s not a real Series III Land Rover:
The list of Things I’m Older Than continues to grow.
The first TV dinners were introduced by Swanson in 1953. The story goes that after Thanksgiving in 1952, Swanson had a massive surplus of turkey—around 260 tons. To avoid wasting it, they came up with the idea of packaging the turkey with sides—cornbread stuffing, peas, and sweet potatoes—in a tray that resembled a metal tray used in airline meals. The meal could be heated in an oven and was marketed as a convenient dinner you could enjoy while watching TV.
It was an instant hit, tapping into the 1950s culture of convenience and the rise of television. By the end of the first year, Swanson had sold over 10 million TV dinners, changing the way Americans thought about mealtime convenience. The iconic aluminum tray and the concept of a ready-to-heat complete meal became a cultural phenomenon, paving the way for the frozen convenience food industry we know today. (GPT 4o)
OpenAI has recently introduced a new image generation feature powered by the GPT-4o model. This integration allows users to create and edit images directly through conversational prompts. GPT-4o processes and generates text, images, and audio. It’s a whole new flavor of creative dopamine. Suddenly you can conjure anything. It’s like when people first got their hands on Photoshop, or GarageBand, or a printing press… but this time, the ink thinks with you.
“The line between idea and image has never been thinner. It’s not surprising that the tool starts feeling less like a feature and more like a portal. Dangerous stuff, in the best way.”
I asked what styles were being prompted by users.
To try this new tool I uploaded this photo of my friend George…
…and said have him holding his head in frustration, standing behind an older woman sitting in front of a computer (George does tech support) and use a comic book style.
Next I told GPT to make the image look like a Renaissance painting…
…then asked for period clothing…
Each of these images took only a minute or two to create and can be tweaked again and again to get (almost) exactly what you’re after.
Next came Film Noir Detective and ’70s Cop Show…
The prompt for my friend Paul was something like, “A man lying on one of those rolling things mechanics use to work under cars. Put him in coveralls, give him a wrench, and add a grease smear to his face.” I tweaked the first image by having him working on a 1966 Mustang.
I finished up with Disco Barb and Cyberpunk Steve…
I’ve seen the phrase “quiet quitting” more and more in the last couple of years but had only the vaguest understanding of what it meant. ChatGPT explains:
Quiet quitting is a workplace trend where employees do the bare minimum required by their job descriptions—no extra tasks, no overtime, no going above and beyond. It’s not about actually quitting but about setting boundaries and disengaging from the traditional “hustle culture” mentality.
This concept gained traction as a response to burnout, low pay, and the expectation that workers should always be “going the extra mile” without additional compensation or recognition. Quiet quitting isn’t necessarily about laziness; for many, it’s a form of self-preservation and work-life balance.
Critics argue that quiet quitting leads to a lack of ambition and weakens company culture, while supporters see it as a necessary pushback against exploitative labor practices. The phenomenon reflects broader shifts in attitudes toward work, particularly among younger generations who prioritize well-being over career-driven sacrifice.
Martha Wells’ award-winning sci-fi book series will soon be a streaming series, co-created by Chris and Paul Weitz and starring Alexander Skarsgård. Murderbot is described in an Apple TV+ press release as a “comedic thriller,” which matches up with the books; Skarsgård plays the title character, “a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients … Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.”
This is pretty much how I pictured Murderbot.
Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries is a science fiction series centered around a self-aware security android that has hacked its own governor module, allowing it to act independently. Rather than fulfilling its assigned duties, it prefers to binge-watch entertainment feeds and avoid human interaction. However, when its human clients face danger, Murderbot reluctantly steps in, often grappling with its own identity, autonomy, and the moral implications of its actions.
The series begins with All Systems Red (2017), where Murderbot protects a group of scientists from corporate sabotage. As the series progresses, it embarks on a journey of self-discovery, questioning what it means to be free while uncovering deep corporate conspiracies. The series blends action, humor, and existential reflection, making it a unique and engaging read. Murderbot’s dry wit and awkwardness make it a relatable and beloved protagonist in modern sci-fi. (ChatGPT)
(Wikipedia) “ZAP was an American company that specialized in electric vehicles of various types, such as cars, motorcycles, bicycles, scooters, watercraft, hovercraft, ATVs and commercial vehicles. Its name was an acronym for Zero Air Pollution. It was based in Santa Rosa, California, but it is no longer active.”
I spotted this beauty on the floor of MacWorld in 2008.
