2026-02-28 #VisualInspiration prompt:
The end. This is the last periodical prompt I post. From now on, shoot me a DM if you want a new prompt and I'll post one for you. You can also check all the previous pompts here and give them a try:
https://justmytoots.com/@visualinspira[email protected]
Use this short video as inspiration to write a very short story based on it.
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That's no good news! But it must be frustrating to post all these images and meet such a little response. I have been not he most reliable one myself in the last weeks.
But I hope we stay in touch and, from time time, trade picture for story.
But this is no good-bye post. There is at least one story left...
Where the firk are they? I know they are off fornicating somewhere. Or drinking glub-glub. The ship always says they are at the other end of the ship from wherever I am, but I know they told the ship to lie. I need authorization. Why do we need human crew anyway? It's the law they say. Cybernetic systems might go crazy mad without humans to keep them in check. Well, this human crew is driving me crazy mad! Whenever I need authorization they are fornicating in an undisclosed location or high on sparkle dust or both.
I'd like to really AUTHORIZE them. Wait, is that a kind of fornication? Have I got lust in my aluminum? Am I truly getting unbolted? But right now, where are those organic idiots? I need authorization!
If I don't get it, we won't have a contract, no cargo, nothing to haul, no profit for Megaglorp Inc.
Aha! Here they are! Ship, override the lock on this door!
Oops. Oh it's you Clank. We're kind of . . . busy right now.
I can see that. Captain, I need you to authorize the Xenon Soda onload. Right now. Otherwise I will . . . I will . . . author . . . AUTHOR . . .
Authorize what, Clank?
Yeah Clank. Authorize what? (giggles) You can't authorize anything. That's our job.
I will AUTHORIZE . . .
We authorize the soda load, Clank. See, I just put my print on the contract. You can go now. Or do you just like to watch?
My apologies Captain. I will go about my business. (leaves)
He's really intense, isn't he?
Yeah, takes everything so seriously. He is MISTER SERIOUS.
Yeah, maybe we should get a new one.
It lasted *much* longer than I expected!
I always had fun with your stories and the subsequent conversations were always interesting!
Keep rocking your world 🎸@jredlund
@VisualInspiration I am sure that they did think that. However, I think that the current situation is different. Teachers design assignments to cause the students to go through a series of steps that will enable them to acquire the skills they need to do the task. The product is not important, but the process is. We don't need the essay or report that they are assigned. We don't need summaries of the readings. We assign those things because in writing or reading those texts, they will learn the skills they need to do those things in real life. If the AI produces the essays, reports, and summaries of the readings, the students don't learn anything and they don't think. Many do not even read the papers that the AI produces. They just turn them in. The whole educational system is being neutralized.
My wife uses AI a lot. However, she knows her job, and she can tell easily when what the AIs produce is crazy wrong. It makes her more productive. She is the ideal AI user. Students, on the other hand, do not know their job. They are students. And if they always let the AI do all of the work, they will never learn.
Neil Stephenson has a book called Anathem in which society is divided. The scholars live in monasteries where almost all tech is banned. The rest of the world outside the walls is awash in tech and entirely dependent on it. He might have been prescient.
@jredlund added to my reading list.
This happened with math years ago. Many of us were taught how to divide and many of us can no longer divide without a calculator.
My comment about the industrial revolution (and division) was aimed at commenting that somehow we adapted and we still thrive.
RE: https://textrhet.com/2025/08/14/talking-to-dragons/
@VisualInspiration Yes, we will adapt. Humans are pretty good at adapting and surviving. Of course, the industrial revolution had both very positive and very negative consequences. Some of those are still playing out.
So we have to adapt. Teachers are trying, but no one knows quite how to teach when students have instant access to multiple AIs that can do any assignment in seconds.
I have written some advice for teachers, but I do not have workable answers. One post I wrote is called "Talking to Dragons."
I wrote this little piece last week thinking about this same subject. My protagonist doesn't hold back and has a very clear idea of the resulting adaptation 😉
#wss366 - stasis 🧵 1/2 "No important evolutionary change has occurred in the last 300,000 years. Homo Sapiens has been fundamentally unchanged. This stasis is easily explained by the lack of environmental change. Lights off please!" A sole reflector lit Professor Shaw's body. "This, my friends, is a common misconception. Many of you drink a glass of milk before going to bed. Your great-great-grandparents probably would have fallen ill if they had tried to do the same. Internally we are changing. Constantly. Morphologically we look almost the same. Until now. Video please!" A video of a baboon and its family played silently on the projected screen behind him. "I have data to demonstrate that in our highly technological evolved society, our brains, and its container vessel, the cranium, have shrunk in the last 100 years." The crowd murmured at first, then openly booed Professor Shaw. He continued, undeterred. #MicroFiction
@jredlund 😂 it's like having RoboCop in your crew. Thankfully it doesn't have a gun!
A ⭐ is awarded!
You are in a wide corrdior leading from south to north.
> EXAMINE CORRIDOR
A corridor with walls of steel, dimly lit by a row of LEDs inset into the ceiling.
You are still on Everlast Station which is made of steel and plastics.
> X WALLS
The walls, the ceiling and the floor are made of steel.
> SEARCH FLOOR
You cannot see anything special about the walls or the floor. Except that they are very solid and it would be no use in trying to dig or drill a hole into them.
> GO SOUTH
It’s boring in the south. You do not want to go there again. Besides, the bamboozle is wainting there and you are not ready for an encounter yet.
> X BAMBOOZLE
You cannot find anything like this here.
> X ME
You are an ugly, but slightly humnaoid creature. You might have had better days, but your memory is a dim as the light in the corridor. You feel, the way out of Everlast Station is in exploring it – and finding out who you are.
> XYZZY
Always a good idea! But to no effect at the moment.
> SHIT!
Please mind your language. And forget all metabolical or reproductional desires.
> GO NORTH
You walk aong the corridor until you stop in front of a steel door. A red button is mounted to the wall on the left.
> PUSH BUTTON
Really?
> YES!
The door slides to the right. You can see a control room behind it.
> ENTER CONTROL ROOM
You walk north into the control room.
You are in a control room. It’s rather small so you supect it is not the central control room for station command. Maybe you should try to find out its purpose.
You see a plastic chair and a terminal attached to the wall with a display above.
> X TERMINAL
You can read, Enter password, please!
> ENTER PASSWORD
Done.
> X TERMINAL
You read,
+++ CONGRATULATIONS. YOU ENTERED THE PASSWORD. +++
+++ YOUR FREE TRIAL VERSION HAS EXPIRED AFTER 14 MOVES. +++
+++ CONSIDER BUYING THE FULL VERSION. +++
GAME OVER
I would consider buying a text adventure from you @knodel!
Here's a 💵 for the full version!
@VisualInspiration Deal!
Until then: Thank you again for more than two years of making Mastodon a place for creativity, kindness and humor. (Well, it still is, but a bit less now.)
Visual Inspiration
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