I’ve really been enjoying AI, particularly what it’s doing to people.

I totally agree with the need for regulation, but beyond our society’s usual impulse toward wealth disparity and climate catastrophe, it is:
A: cool to do digital things on command
B: amazing having actualized talking computers from so many of my childhood cartoons (ie, Nicole from Sonic SatAM)
And above all, C: it’s made us actually seek and value raw humanity.

Being machine-like—calculated and precise—has always been a cherished quality in humans, especially by employers. But now, if people want robot-like work, they can get an actual robot to do it. With so many people deciding AI is not for them, there’s a whole new demand for human imperfection.

Humans want human connection, and as we’ve rapidly seen AI develop, we’ve learned some shortcuts for recognizing humanity. A big one is imperfection. Wobbly lines, spelling mistakes, poor timing. When we’re looking to avoid AI, we’re learning to look at human creation as if the creator’s mother were looking at it. Intention is value, and mistakes are either signatures of personality or temporary.

This might sound like we’re embracing poor workmanship, but I think humans are naturally too competitive to be concerned about that. We still love to categorize and rank things. We’re just finding the point of entry much more appealing now.

Starting with the COVID reset, our communities have been building more programs to get people out of their homes, and now this trend against AI has given people an ideological cause to respond to. Or at least, that’s how I’m seeing it.

Then again, I am at the center of my own world; we all are. We choose the people we jive with, build environments that suit us, and are attracted to—and attractive to—things that fit us. So to me, it feels like the whole world is realizing this, but maybe I’m just getting older?

I might be at an age where I naturally get more tolerant and open toward people… if that’s a thing? I’ve learned that high standards take a lot of effort and ultimately limit enjoyment, and I think that’s a maturity thing. I mean, I did it superficially as a child, where I chased good feelings at the expense of every other boundary keeping me sane and safe. But after 180-ing from that, I think it’s natural to come full circle again with a more balanced perspective. Still, it’s got to be a societal trend to some extent, right?

In the early 2010s, critiques were the highest fashion. From food to video games, the driving force of the internet was people telling each other what was wrong with the way they did things, and what the right way was to go about it. So it wasn’t just me, but I don’t know how far outward it extends. A global movement? Or just my media echo chamber?

I like that people are enjoying things more. It makes me optimistic that I’m going to be enjoyed more, and that I’ll do more enjoying.

I feel like I don’t really get to enjoy things until that trend or season is wearing out. Or maybe that’s where I’m bridging the societal trend with the age thing.

Age 12, 22, 37. I’ve noticed that I start accepting my body in the mirror right before it high-speeds through the next aging sequence and I’m given new colors, spots, rolls, and wrinkles to come to terms with. Likewise, in the ’90s I struggled to be anything; in the 2000s, I struggled to be cool; in the 2010s, I struggled to be skilled; and now I’m optimistic that my mind’s in the right place to catch the latest change a bit early. Hopefully enjoying it for longer.

So clearly, whatever is happening is as temporary as anything. I wonder what should be prepared for next in order to continue the enjoyment?

Like many, I am very charmed by Monoli’s Pixel Mirror pendant, but I’m never going to be able to afford it. So I had GPT write up a website to generate similar pixel art. Granted the pixel mirror looks so good because it’s not making true pixels; they clearly have a gradient and outlines, but this at least gives me a taste of that charm. I’m sure it can be simulated more accurately, but I’m content with this.

It’s my understanding that speaker drivers perform better when they have less sound going through them. You may have noticed this in music when a band joins in on an instrument solo and the whole soundstage just seems to box in on itself. So splitting audio between more drivers should improve sound quality, but making custom cross-over circuit boards is tedius and confusing for amateurs like me.

Luckily people have already been experimenting with virtual cross-overs. I first seriously thought about this years ago when stumbling upon a plugin for Foobar2k with this goal that aligns perfectly with my own: using a computers 5.1 audio to output specific frequencies to individual speakers. I’ve never gotten that plugin to work as it was out of date even when I first found it, but after some digging I did find Equalizer APO which gives you all kind of control over your computer’s audio, regardless of the media player.

So this is the setup that I’m currently enjoying. I have a 5.1 USB DAC (it can go up to 7.1, which I’ll have to take advantage of in the future) with the front channels, rear channels, and subwoofer each going into their own amplifier and connecting to different speaker boxes. Stereo sound files natively output only to the front speakers. So using Equalizer APO I can clone the front channels to the rear channels and mix them both to the subwoofer. Each speaker set signal can also be manipulated individually. I have my small bookshelf speakers set with a high pass to only play frequncies above 1khz, the subwoofer to only play frequencies below 80hz, and my large speakers to play 60hz to 1400khz.

As I don’t use a center channel speaker, but 5.1 audio/movie files will automatically try to output to one: I also have a second setup without any audio mods except for cloning center channel audio streams to the Left and Right channels. Switching between the two setups is just a button press away in the task bar.

The video above doesn’t make it very obvious, you can probably hear a difference in the bass, but in person the upper frequncies and vocal range are night and day different.

There is physically more space between my upper and lower frequencies, and more sound waves filling the space, so it’s difficult to interpret quality, but I find it much more enjoyable to listen to for now. I am hearing some weaknesses, but I think it’s just a matter of experimenting with the cross-over frequencies because it sounds kind of like there’s a hump in the audio where smooth scaling of octaves would be expected.

Regardless, I think there’s a lot of potential here. My next step would be to bypass the physical cross-overs in my speaker sets and access their drivers directly. I’ll need more amplifiers though, as without upgrading to the 7.1 output I won’t be achieving my goal of having less sound across more drivers.

I received a treat over the holidays from an old friend from my hometown who was looking for an artist for the next album by their band, Wiesinger. It’s nice to be remembered. It’s nice to have an art project.

The charging circuit blew on my W-King 220w Bluetooth Speaker and I couldn’t find any dismantling guides. After some false starts, apparently the grill is only glued in a couple spots and pops off relatively easily. Then the screws through the drivers are accessible which will give you access to the main board with amplifier/charge circuits, and the battery pack behind the other driver. I didn’t repair the charge circuit, but I pulled the battery out so it can be charged externally. If I’m feeling lucky I’ll try to power the speaker with a 12 volt battery pack. That’s not tooo far off from the 10.8v pack installed.

Update: I don’t know what the long term repercussions would be, but the speaker does directly run off 12v DC. I’ve tried 2 amp and 5 amp sources.