Things I Think Are Awesome

Things I Think Are Awesome is a Substack focused on highlighting innovative and interesting uses of creative AI, games, narrative tools, generative art and text, with a deep dive into fantasy, science fiction, folklore, and poetry. It also explores legal, ethical issues in digital creativity, AI advancements, folklore-infused narratives, and the intersection of technology with traditional literary and artistic expressions.

Creative AI Games and Narrative Tools Generative Art and Text Science Fiction/Fantasy Literature and TV Poetry and Oddities Folklore Data Science Digital Copyright and Authorship Environmental Impact AI and Gaming Multimedia Art Traditional Beliefs and Modern Technology

The hottest Substack posts of Things I Think Are Awesome

And their main takeaways

TITAA #51: Tool People & People Tools

157 implied HN points • 01 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI VR Games NLP Tools
  1. Non-human tools with personality are becoming more common, especially with AI support.
  2. Large Language Models (LLMs) are being explored for creativity and role-playing, showing potential to improve creative output when working together.
  3. Real human behavior can sometimes view humans as disposable tools, with ongoing layoffs in industries like tech and games.

TITAA #50: Slow Grey Mares Stuck at Exit 8

196 implied HN points • 31 Dec 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Folklore AI Art Animation VR Poetry
  1. The post discusses the Welsh tradition of Mari Lwyd, a skeletal horse pranking people during New Year's Eve.
  2. Mari Lwyd is associated with village mummers in south Wales in the 1800s and is constructed of a horse's skull and a white sheet.
  3. The post also covers various AI art tools, including an AI animation artist called NiceAunties and AI-generated SVG from images.

Best of 2023: Books, TV, Games

117 implied HN points • 30 Dec 23
🎭️ Culture Books TV Games
  1. The post highlights the best books, TV shows, and games of 2023.
  2. The recommendations are for financial supporters only.
  3. There is a new section on the newsletter dedicated to media recommendations.
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TITAA #47.5: IKEA Diagrams of Demons

216 implied HN points • 15 Oct 23
🕹 Technology AI Art Narrative Models Embeddings
  1. The post discusses using an IKEA-diagrams LoRa of SDXL for fun, generating impossible things like 'happiness' and 'poetry.'
  2. The diagrams in the post show steps to make a robot, angel, and golem, each with unique and interesting instructions.
  3. The post also touches on AI tools for code and reinforcement learning from an AI perspective.

TITAA #49: Secret Missions at LUSH

117 implied HN points • 01 Dec 23
🕹 Technology
  1. The post discusses using LLMs and Google APIs to create travel diaries of weird missions in European cities.
  2. There's been a recent flurry of activity in creative AI, focusing on real-time image generation, improved video generation, 3D meshes, and control models.
  3. The post also covers various tools and projects related to AI creativity, narrative generation, games adjacent topics, and book and TV recommendations.

TITAA #48.5: Stone Tape on a Stone Island

117 implied HN points • 15 Nov 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Film Visual Arts Creativity Literature Culture
  1. The film 'Enys Men' by Mark Jenkin is a poetic visual experience featuring a mysterious radio and glimpses of the past.
  2. The concept of 'stone tape theory' in the film explores the idea of objects recording and playing back the past, contributing to the eerie and weird atmosphere.
  3. Mark Jenkin's film delves into the fear of time breaking down and uses film as a medium to convey a sense of time and space.

TITAA #48: Magic Mirrors and Radios

117 implied HN points • 31 Oct 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Literature TV Poetry Games VR
  1. Jean Cocteau's film Orpheus explores themes of inspiration and creativity through tech signals and mirror portals.
  2. Mirrors serve as symbols and characters in Cocteau's film, representing death and reflection.
  3. The post also includes recommendations for AI/art creativity, narrative research, and TV shows like Our Flag Means Death and The Terror.

TITAA #47: Authenticity and Control

137 implied HN points • 30 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Art Gaming AI NLP
  1. The article discusses digital image tools that can augment daily lives, highlighting authenticity challenges.
  2. Issues with digital unreality in daily tools like image processing are becoming more evident and concerning.
  3. Advancements in AI algorithms are being used to create images that appear authentic, raising questions about what is real and what is artificially generated.

TITAA #45: Haunted AI Houses Need Poets

176 implied HN points • 01 Aug 23
🎨 Art & Illustration AI Art Poetry Animation Virtual reality Gaming
  1. AI-run haunted houses in literature often present intriguing narratives and questions about space and identity.
  2. Poets and writers can explore unreal architectures and dream-like spaces created by AI tools to tell unique and engaging stories.
  3. Exploring the intersection of AI, art, and poetry can lead to the creation of cosmic narratives within the digital labyrinth.

TITAA #46: Golems, Tulpas, Egregores and AI

137 implied HN points • 01 Sep 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Comics Literature Science TV Virtual reality
  1. The post discusses folkloric entities like golems, tulpas, and egregores, which are created by humans and can have varied effects.
  2. Golems are creatures from Jewish folklore created from mud or clay with specific activation and deactivation methods.
  3. There are parallels between these entities and modern phenomena like AI behavior and strange chatbot interactions.

TITAA #46.5: AI "Fakes," Sproings, and Splats

117 implied HN points • 15 Sep 23
🎶 Music AI Music Industry
  1. There is a controversy around leaked music tracks, with fans unsure if they are real or created by AI.
  2. Fans face challenges in determining the authenticity of leaked music, with some being threatened for suggesting the tracks may be fake.
  3. The situation highlights the complex dynamics between fans, authenticity, and the value of content in the music industry.

TITAA #40: Post-Creative Creativity

216 implied HN points • 28 Feb 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Game design Storytelling Visual Arts TV Poetry
  1. Conceptual artist Sol Lewitt's wall drawings are executed by others based on his written prompts, highlighting different interpretations of instructions
  2. Poetry translation can lead to varied interpretations of the same text in different languages
  3. Copyright laws and the concept of dual authorship raise questions about originality and authorship in derived works

TITAA #43: AI Agents Mispronouncing Stuff

176 implied HN points • 31 May 23
📚 Literature Poem
  1. The post discusses the use of AI in gaming and the challenges of mispronunciations by AI agents.
  2. An example of a game that combines AI tools for branching dialogues and game state trees is highlighted.
  3. The post touches on the importance of creating immersive games with active player engagement.

TITAA 44: Reading Ancient Art with Birdmen

137 implied HN points • 01 Jul 23
🎨 Art & Illustration
  1. The prehistoric art depicts a shaman in a trance performing magic, not just art for its own sake.
  2. AI art tools like Midjourney 5.2 and Zeroscope Text2Video are making significant improvements in video generation.
  3. The release of Infinigen, a procedural generator of 3D scenes, offers new possibilities for creating infinite photorealistic worlds.

TITAA #42.5: Old Haiku Meet New AI

157 implied HN points • 14 May 23
🎨 Art & Illustration AI Art
  1. The project combines old haiku poetry with new AI technology to create multimedia experiences.
  2. The haiku illustrations include AI-generated letters, music, and video clips, focusing on the atmosphere and emotions of the poems.
  3. The project showcases the challenges and creativity involved in using AI models to generate visuals and music based on poetry prompts.

TITAA #41: Spirit Scripts and Repeating Stars

157 implied HN points • 31 Mar 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Art Literature Poetry Fiction TV
  1. The Atlas of Endangered Alphabets project documents fascinating writing systems, including divinatory scripts and sacred Indian scripts.
  2. New AI art models like DALL-E, SDXL, and Adobe Firefly are being tested and compared for image generation.
  3. Exciting developments in 3D research papers and NeRFs show advancements in scene generation, editing, and efficient representation.

TITAA #34: Latent and/or Beautiful Bodies

157 implied HN points • 02 Oct 22
  1. An exhibit at the Tate Modern focuses on Cézanne's influence on modernists like Picasso and Matisse.
  2. Cézanne painted many portraits of his wife, even after their separation, showing a complex relationship.
  3. The tech industry is constantly evolving with AI art tools for image creation, NLP applications, and more.

TITAA #41.5: Agents and Rich Description

78 implied HN points • 15 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI Games NLP Game design
  1. The post discusses Segment Anything for creative tasks, social agents in game contexts, and new LLMs in the AI landscape.
  2. The content covers AI art tools, game design elements like agents and NPCs, and updates in the field of NLP.
  3. The author mentions increases in paid subscriptions, interesting topics like AI art copyright, and shares a variety of exciting updates.

TITAA #36: Skulls and Pentimenti

78 implied HN points • 29 Nov 22
  1. Transitioning to Mastodon from Twitter can be feasible with the right tools and guides.
  2. Discovering pentimenti in art reveals earlier images or forms that have been changed and painted over.
  3. Exploring creative AI developments, such as 3D image generation and improving text generation with large ranking models.

TITAA #25: The Many-Eyed Ones and Yearly Roundup

157 implied HN points • 30 Dec 21
  1. The post explores the concept of angels like seraphim and cherubim, featuring six wings and many eyes
  2. AI art tools like GLIDE and Vector-Quantized Diffusion Model offer interesting results but struggle with complex prompts
  3. The post covers various topics including NLP, data science, books, TV shows, games, and poems providing a rich and diverse range of content

TITAA #27: Cave Poems and Strange Horticulture

19 implied HN points • 26 Feb 22
  1. The TITAA #27 newsletter discusses cave poems and strange horticulture
  2. The newsletter covers topics like editing AI art, 3D image generation, and story arcs
  3. Featured games include Strange Horticulture and Skyrim VR

Things I Think Are Awesome #6: Artist's Studios

0 implied HN points • 17 Nov 19
  1. Surrounding yourself with objects of fascination can boost creativity.
  2. AI tools like visual search and GANs can offer unique insights and artistic inspiration.
  3. Exploring artist's studios and their collections can provide new perspectives and ideas.

Things I Think Are Awesome #7: Distractions Issue

0 implied HN points • 14 Mar 20
  1. The issue explores distractions like TV, movies, and books.
  2. AI Dungeon is a fun and interactive storytelling tool.
  3. Recommendations include sci-fi books, binge-worthy TV shows, and a comforting recipe.

Things I Think Are Awesome #8: Castles and More Escapism.

0 implied HN points • 28 Jun 20
  1. Experimenting with AI tools like RunwayML can lead to creating new and unique content, like generating images of French castles.
  2. Watching a variety of TV shows, from science fiction to detective mysteries, can provide excellent entertainment and escape.
  3. Exploring a diverse range of books, from novels with fantastical elements to science fiction sequels, can offer immersive and thought-provoking storytelling experiences.

Things I Think Are Awesome #9: Weird Travel

0 implied HN points • 21 Aug 20
  1. The author shared their unique travel experiences in France, including exploring local museums with diverse exhibits.
  2. Oskar Stålberg's game Townscaper is praised for its creativity and lack of gameplay, inspiring fan art and stories.
  3. AI biases and glitches, like Ryan Gosling's face randomly appearing in photos, show the quirky side of technology.

Things I Think Are Awesome #10: The Animal Edition

0 implied HN points • 27 Sep 20
  1. Teaching and learning resources like Lena Voita's NLP course and Javascript Data Wrangling tutorials are recommended.
  2. The animal stories section includes inspirational tales like Magawa the rat and a woman's friendship with a lake fish.
  3. Book recommendations cover a range of genres from thrillers to science fiction, with titles like 'Declare' and 'Piranesi' highlighted.

Things I Think Are Awesome #13: VR and a New Year

0 implied HN points • 30 Dec 20
  1. The author is experimenting with VR technology and finds it enjoyable for various activities like exploring Google StreetView in 3D.
  2. The author shares recommendations for VR apps and games, such as Ocean Rift, Nature Treks VR, and The Room VR.
  3. The author also mentions their favorite TV shows, books, and recipes, providing a diverse range of interests and recommendations.

Things I Think Are Awesome #14: Poetic Imagery and Lemons

0 implied HN points • 30 Jan 21
  1. The post discusses collage art like Adele Karmazyn's work and its connection to fan fiction.
  2. There's a mention of AI art and tech resources like Three.js course, ArXiv articles on text generation, DALL-E, and CLIP.
  3. Personal reflections on TV shows, books, lemon-based recipes, and a poem shared in the post.

TITAA #15: Jobs in VR, AI search engines, Tutorials

0 implied HN points • 28 Feb 21
  1. AI advancements like DALL-E and AI search engines are emerging.
  2. There are interesting tutorials available on various topics like texturing and data visualization.
  3. Exploring VR games can be a fun way to escape and experience new job simulations.

TITAA #16: Atmospheric Games Edition

0 implied HN points • 27 Mar 21
  1. Explore generative art and text projects for creative inspiration.
  2. Discover atmospheric games for a captivating and immersive experience.
  3. Find interesting tech tools and references like SpikeX and DataMuse API for various applications.

TITAA #18: OUTER SPACE Edition!

0 implied HN points • 04 Jun 21
  1. The post discusses the author's recent fascination with outer space, inspired by a TV show and exploring various aspects like old photos and VR experiences.
  2. The post highlights interesting AI and creativity tools like Language Driven Image Style Transfer and other exciting projects in the field.
  3. The author shares experiences with VR games related to outer space, such as Space Engine, Universe Sandbox, and VR experiences like the ISS tour.

TITAA #20: Hidden Connections and Rabbits

0 implied HN points • 28 Jul 21
  1. The SATOR square is a strange Roman anagram block associated with mystical and magical applications.
  2. AI art and creativity involve experimenting with CLIP models to generate unique and artistic content.
  3. The book 'Rabbits' by Terry Miles is recommended for those interested in conspiracy theories, parallel worlds, and old computer games.