I Confess, I Set My Clock Back Too Far.
Today we set our clocks back. I may have gotten a little carried away. Most of you went back an hour. I went back a hundred years. And yes, I used AI to get there.
Which brings me to a confession.First, thanks for all your feedback. As usual, it’s a little all over the place. But it’s the internet, and here we are. So why am I messing around with all this AI crap on an old boat website? Because I need to understand something before I can dismiss it. Or embrace it.
Does it violate every fiber optic of my soul? YES. Does some of it scare me? Absolutely.
Mr B likes table scraps. Shhh Gar is speaking
But here’s the confession. In the past three weeks, I’ve produced work that used to take me months. By myself. In a chair. At home. Most of that is agency work: presentations, storyboards, RFPs. All that stuff that can suck the life out of you. Getting through it faster gives me more time to look at the idea. Does it say anything? Does it make you feel something? Or have I just made more crap faster? That last question is getting a workout.
It may seem like its all done with a click of a button, its not. And now clear that its an illustration of sorts and not a real image.
Here on WoodyBoater, the human flaws are part of the place. Who knew my spelling would someday qualify as proof of life? This whole experience has been inspiring and deeply depressing. I see AI everywhere now, and much of it turns me off. Including some of my own experiments. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should” applies to AI, drone footage, and doughnuts. But one question keeps me curious: Can this new thing help us feel closer to the old things we love?
That’s what I’m exploring in this little film about Chris Smith and Gar Wood. And yes, that’s me in the images. I’ve apparently moved from standing around looking at old boats to standing around in the wrong century. Putting myself there is a way of making the fantasy clear. It’s an imagined visit to the past, made with AI and built around real history. The scenes are interpretations, and getting the details right still matters. I’m trying to imagine what it felt like to be there with the humans behind all that beautiful wood.
Take a look. Tell me what you feel. I already know you’ll tell me what you think. HA!
While entertaining, it is a bit scary. There is a fine line, it seems, in telling a story or becoming part of that story when using AI in the production. I think, for a while I guess, I will view AI as entertainment. Thanks for being bold, daring and upfront!
Well, I think you’re hooked. And that “just because you can doesn’t mean you should “ applies to a lot of things in our world today. I wish I didn’t feel that way, but I do!
Amen, Greg!
I’m with you Greg, and the picture could be me 50 years ago.
I like you and B stepping back in time to witness people and events and telling the story. Reminds me of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” movie. “Matt and B’s Excellent Adventure”. But please fix “Naples” before this goes out there.
also, it still prints “Alganac”. Then gets it right later. And it prints “shaping holes”.
This is truly a Show – –
So we must ask ourselves, is it the 16th century or the 21st century. like Jimmy Buffett said “what time zone am I on? What Country am I in? It’s always on 5 in Margaritaville”
So we must ask ourselves, is it the 21st-century or the 16th century. It’s like Jimmy Buffett said “what time zone am I on? What country am I in. It’s always on five at Margaritaville.”
Got two of me today🤪
Ai scares the living shit out of me. There, I said it .
Why? There are no rules, no guardrails and now the genie is out of the bottle. Around the world.
Not good, not good at all.
While it will save time and effort, man made creativity and hands-on effort will still survive, for a while anyway.
Until the machine masters becoming self-aware. Then, humans will have to get real creative.
And your theory Matt about buying a boat and then buying the company that built it?
Well, it’s not that far of a stretch.
You and I love woodies so much, that in order to feed the addiction, justified purchasing a Railway and a Marina so we could stay hooked!!!! Uh huh.
Me? Just like Buffett said, “I’m a digital explorer in an analog roam…….”.
And then there is the BIG question of what happens when the crooks get good at AI? Matt is getting really good at it, and for the ad business that is all fine and dandy. When the millions of dirt balls in the world get really good at AI, we won’t know if we are talking to our son or a computer who is asking for a loan.
I find anachronistic and frequently inaccurate snippets of AI slop to be aggravating, disingenuous and dilutive to an already dangerously thin knowledge and information base. YouTube is quickly becoming unwatchable because of the dense proliferation of hastily produced formulaic dreck, most of which is devoid of value.
If you really want to distinguish yourself, why not maintain your individuality, personality and genuine charm by refusing to join the teeming and anonymous horde of vapid AI tropes.
There is clearly a place for AI and a tremendous functional utility to be obtained in many applications, but really – is WB that place? I don’t see the value or need.
Ahhhh, we brought Paul out of hiding. Well I put your comment into AI to help other to understand the comment- Here are the definitions
Anachronistic: Stuff from the wrong time. Like George Washington checking his phone.
Aggravating: Annoying. Like a boat leak you already fixed twice.
Disingenuous: Not quite honest. Like “Just needs a little varnish.”
Dilutive: Watering something down. More stuff, less good stuff.
Proliferation: A whole lot more of something showing up. Usually the thing you didn’t want.
Formulaic: Same recipe. Different boat.
Dreck: Junk. But wearing a word that went to college.
Devoid of value: Not worth much. Even at the swap meet.
Distinguish yourself: Give people a reason to pick you out of the crowd.
Individuality: Being yourself. Even if we’ve asked you to stop.
Teeming: Full of something. Like the comment section when you use the wrong screw.
Anonymous horde: A huge crowd of people nobody knows.
Vapid: Nothing much going on upstairs.
Tropes: The same tired ideas showing up again. Cue the sunset and inspirational quote.
Tremendous functional utility: Really useful. Three words doing the work of two.
Applications: Things you can use it for. No download required.
Thanks Matt
I was worried I was the only idiot here
Thanks woodyboater
The WB we love returns! As to a previous comment regarding “Algonac”. Having grown up here with the regional accent it is often pronounced with the “a”.
Ok here goes…I can already feel the hate.
Ai will not sell the idea of buying, restoring and owning a wood boat to the younger set until other very critical bits in our society be addressed. Let us be honest. You have to have a good well paying job to afford this hobby. So we tell our kids to go to college where they rack up $200,000 in debt, and their first jobs pay crap. Here in Oregon, if you want a good fob your best chances are in the Portland Metro area…..where a starter home is $600,000 or more.
So, crappy job that cannot work with the debt of college and home, because they NEED the home to store the boat etc.
My kiddos are of the age where they and their friends are just graduating from college. They see the numbers and job market and they have already given up on the idea of even buying a new car. Home ownership is a dream. Owning a wood boat or an over priced by the Boomers 1968 Chevy Camaro is not even a dream anymore.
Not sure about the rest of the country but here in Oregon, where retirement packages meant that you could retire one day, vaporized. But when it was good for the private sector, the public sector sucked. So they fixed that, and for a brief time it was good. Ah, but then the greed took over and now with crappy 401k and the like, the private sector stinks and the public sector is sort of good. So what does everyone want to do? They want to cut the public sector retirement bit….so NOBODY can actually afford to retire. Work until you die folks. A race to the bottom.
The young see this. And despite having gone to one of the best high schools and colleges in the country, they have thrown in the towel. We are screwed people until we fix this crap for our kids.
In the meantime, the boomers will die and their kids will sell those fancy wood boats to whomever will buy them…so they can pay off their student loans, and maybe buy a small home.
So. I ask only one thing. Before you discount this post and cast me off as a jerk, go out and actually have many, many conversations with the young. Listen to them. It aint great folks.
I hear you Briant. Tell the kids to keep the towel in and not out.
My starting salary in 1981 was $8,000 a year ( todays numbers $28K. My student loan was $259.18 a month. Funny how I can still remember the eighteen cents. More than half my gross pay, gone. THEN came taxes and rent. A $50,000 house might as well have been a million. And mortgage rates were 15–18%. Yes.
So when “young people “look at the numbers and can’t see how it will ever work, I remember that feeling VERY well. Average starting salary in my same profession is around $65K these days, and more hopeful than it would be for me to find a job now. Cough cough
Every generation gets its hurdles. Today’s are real. YIKES! But where you start isn’t necessarily where you end up.
And because we are here on Woodyboater – here’s where a WoodyBoat boat might actually help. SHOCKING! BTW I can justify anything, made a good living doing it for others! HA
Sometimes you can get one for FREE. Yes, yes, we all know how expensive FREE can get. But you don’t have to start with a waterfront house and a perfect triple cockpit. Actually Tripple cockpits can be cheap to find, but yikes. maybe a ratty whirlwind. NOW here is my point- You start small. Meet people. Borrow a tool. Learn something. Fix something. Suddenly you have a whole bunch of very old friends who are delighted somebody under 60 wants to hear them talk. BTW they will die soon and leave you all there crap!
Some of those people own businesses. Hire people. KNOW people. A shared love of something can open a door that another résumé in a pile never will. And letting someone see you show up, learn, and stick with a project tells them something about you than what frat you belonged to. Come for the free boat. Accidentally build a network. Possibly get lunch. No guarantees. But that sounds like a better Saturday than sitting around agreeing your future is screwed.
Dear Mr. Toye, you don’t have to worry about me thinking that you’re a jerk after reading this post. I’ve thought that you were a jerk since you wrote that horrid letter to the ACBS Rudder concerning your opinion of fiberglass boats being in involved in classic boat endeavors. That was quite a few years ago. I wrote a letter in response but the ACBS board didn’t have the gonads to publish it. That aside, I don’t worry about the end of civilization coming from AI. My parents were concerned about how my generation would survive the cold war and all the trappings that were troubling at that time, you know, street gangs, beatniks, even and including the rude treatment of veterans returning from overseas involvement. And most were concerned about my generation’s ability to deal with it. But we have. And just as some might worry about the threat of AI, future generations will deal with in their own manner. And they will persevere. And they will come up with solutions. I have been having some fun with AI. I do presentations, some of you may have attended them. I can use AI to make my visuals more sharp, colorful, more meaningful. I am including an example here of the image of the Eshelmann Rocket from 1957. The image is taken from a 1957 Popular Mechanics. “A” is a direct scan taken from the magazine. In “B” I’ve loaded it into Photoshop and cleaned up some of the imperfections and then loaded it into a sharpness filter to make the boat stand out. When we get to “C” we see the final result of the AI doing its thing. Now, if you were attending one of my presentations (I doubt that you would), which image would give you the best idea of what I am speaking about? If you wish to gather with the Luddites, fine. I believe that I raised my daughter to thrive no matter what the world will throw at her. And she is thriving. Give future generations a chance to prove their mettle. Our parents did. And I wake up every morning glad to have another opportunity to do something evocative with my time here on the planet. I feel sorry for you.
We are surprised that you didn’t lose your hat, in a fast boat with Gar Wood.
Next time turn it around backward. The hat that is.