This is probably my favorite thing you have written. I am not sure why. Maybe the Brautigan reference? No, I think not. Also, thanks for the heron pic. I needed to see a heron this morning.
Knowing with absolute certainty that the photograph of the mayfly is not AI slop does not actually depend on any analysis of the photo. It doesn't depend on a verification programme run through a detection module on a computer. It doesn't depend on researching the habits and habitats of mayflies, or indeed of cyclists.
It depends on us knowing you. On us trusting and relying on you.
The present uproar about AI slop is a product of the general public's own seeming gullibility: to take on trust that which they have no reason to consider trustworthy.
Trust is a part of the sixth sense that we learned to dispense with in the wake of the Enlightenment. In a court of law, we are challenged to justify trust by reference to the other five senses. But even the deaf, dumb and blind can place, or decline, their trust. There is no little irony in observing that it is the advancement of AI that may yet reawaken an acute sense of trust in our human psyches, as we learn, sometimes the hard way, what we can and cannot place it in.
I was briefly a fly fisherman as a teenager and that was when I was introduced to nymphs, though I can’t guarantee I ever actually fished with one. Much more fun now to just watch birds, bugs, fish, and critters just going about their business. We were astounded last week in Arkansas to be confronted by what we eventually realized was a mole above ground and very unhappy about it as we crossed the parking lot of a burger place. Another customer picked it up and moved it to a possible sanctuary but I fear he was bitten in the process. I hope he’s okay.
I've committed the major faux pas of replying to a text with a voice note. Can you imagine what the authors would think of replying to a text with a typewriter-written note? It would probably be considered off-the-charts rude because it could take someone longer than 30 seconds to read it. In other words, it doesn't fall into the three to ten word sweet spot. If this article has the pulse right, then modern etiquette is weird to me. But I'm also one of those people who still send snail mail.
This is probably my favorite thing you have written. I am not sure why. Maybe the Brautigan reference? No, I think not. Also, thanks for the heron pic. I needed to see a heron this morning.
Would a tree think of us the same way we think of the Mayfly. "Such a short life span for such a tiny thing with only four limbs."
😍
For anyone else like me who hasn't yet read Brautigan, the poet Billy Collins gives an intro to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH_DqMQVzW8
My father loved trout fishing.
Knowing with absolute certainty that the photograph of the mayfly is not AI slop does not actually depend on any analysis of the photo. It doesn't depend on a verification programme run through a detection module on a computer. It doesn't depend on researching the habits and habitats of mayflies, or indeed of cyclists.
It depends on us knowing you. On us trusting and relying on you.
The present uproar about AI slop is a product of the general public's own seeming gullibility: to take on trust that which they have no reason to consider trustworthy.
Trust is a part of the sixth sense that we learned to dispense with in the wake of the Enlightenment. In a court of law, we are challenged to justify trust by reference to the other five senses. But even the deaf, dumb and blind can place, or decline, their trust. There is no little irony in observing that it is the advancement of AI that may yet reawaken an acute sense of trust in our human psyches, as we learn, sometimes the hard way, what we can and cannot place it in.
I was briefly a fly fisherman as a teenager and that was when I was introduced to nymphs, though I can’t guarantee I ever actually fished with one. Much more fun now to just watch birds, bugs, fish, and critters just going about their business. We were astounded last week in Arkansas to be confronted by what we eventually realized was a mole above ground and very unhappy about it as we crossed the parking lot of a burger place. Another customer picked it up and moved it to a possible sanctuary but I fear he was bitten in the process. I hope he’s okay.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfly?wprov=sfti1
Aww. We're seeing the mayflies everywhere up here in Coeur D'Alene area too, Kent. It's supposedly a good sign for nature.
You've read The River Why, right?
Yep.
On 'Yep', see here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2026/jul/10/guide-to-modern-etiquette
I tend not to take my social cues from the Guardian.
I've committed the major faux pas of replying to a text with a voice note. Can you imagine what the authors would think of replying to a text with a typewriter-written note? It would probably be considered off-the-charts rude because it could take someone longer than 30 seconds to read it. In other words, it doesn't fall into the three to ten word sweet spot. If this article has the pulse right, then modern etiquette is weird to me. But I'm also one of those people who still send snail mail.
One of my favorite pieces you’ve written 💚
I’m sure the mayfly’s life seems as long, or as short, as ours seems to us.