Category Archives: Concept

Books for Everyone (including animals and the machines) #dailycreate #tdc4396 #ds106

This 1929 poster is from the Library of Congress archives on Flickr. Let’s do an update (maybe most needed now more than ever in the era of banned books in the US). Make your poster or meme more modern but keep the love of books alive in your art. https://daily.ds106.us/tdc4396/

My poster was generated with Image Creator from Microsoft Designer (Powered by DALL·E 3), using the prompt “A promotional poster of a retro futuristic environment filled with diverse humans, whales, animals and robots all happily reading books and sharing what they know and expanding their minds, in a 20s minimal colour art deco style.”



AI106, DS106 & GITS – it’s about friendship and love

Discovering AI106 (DS106) was running again in 2024 gave me pause for thought. My pause wasn’t just on its theme of artificial intelligence or the Week 1 assignment of getting some inspiration by watching AI related films or reading AI-themed fiction. It was also Paul Bond’s Ghosts of future past blog post.

You had me at GITS

I’m a long time fan of 90s Ghost in the Shell (GITS) film and the later standalone sequel, Innocence. The two television series that make up Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex are also great.

Paul’s astute observations of AI in our current era and in the synthetic world of GITS and the big questions around what it might mean for our future all ring true. Yes, to this. Absolutely.

Photo from the book "Analysis of Ghost in the Shell. Pullquote featuring dialogue from Batou: Save it. I'm not gonna let you die over this. If it looks like you've gone too far, I'm gonna pull the plug and take you outta here. But as long as I'm here and we've come this far, I might as well stay a while and see how it turns out.
Photo from the book “Analysis of Ghost in the Shell. Page features a pullquote of dialogue from Batou: Save it. I’m not gonna let you die over this. If it looks like you’ve gone too far, I’m gonna pull the plug and take you outta here. But as long as I’m here and we’ve come this far, I might as well stay a while and see how it turns out.

Photo from the book "Analysis of Ghost in the Shell. Pullquote featuring dialogue from Batou: Save it. I'm not gonna let you die over this. If it looks like you've gone too far, I'm gonna pull the plug and take you outta here. But as long as I'm here and we've come this far, I might as well stay a while and see how it turns out.
Photo from the book “Analysis of Ghost in the Shell. Page features a pullquote of dialogue from Batou: Save it. I’m not gonna let you die over this. If it looks like you’ve gone too far, I’m gonna pull the plug and take you outta here. But as long as I’m here and we’ve come this far, I might as well stay a while and see how it turns out.
Photo from the book "Analysis of Ghost in the Shell. Pullquote featuring dialogue from Batou: Save it. I'm not gonna let you die over this. If it looks like you've gone too far, I'm gonna pull the plug and take you outta here. But as long as I'm here and we've come this far, I might as well stay a while and see how it turns out.
Photo from the book “Analysis of Ghost in the Shell. Page features a pullquote of dialogue from Batou: Save it. I’m not gonna let you die over this. If it looks like you’ve gone too far, I’m gonna pull the plug and take you outta here. But as long as I’m here and we’ve come this far, I might as well stay a while and see how it turns out.

An enduring friendship

There’s another theme in GITS that really resonates with me (along with all the futuristic tech stuff). Friendship and love – the enduring friendship between Batou and Major.

The enduring friendship and love shared by Batou and Major is not dissimilar to the friendship and love (along with all futuristic tech stuff) shared by DS106 participants throughout its rich history spanning over a decade – it is #4LIFE, after all.

DS106 is back for 2024 in the synthetic-full-body-prosthesis-augmented-cybernetic form of AI106. And, I’m here once again.

But, as long as I’m here and we’ve come this far, I might as well stay awhile and see how it turns out.