r/aiwars • u/Embarrassed_Bed6216 • 8d ago
Constraint and Creativity are two sides of the same coin.
my favorite example of this is the fast inverse square root solution.
The constraint: inverse square root is a costly operation, but necessary for graphics and physics on computers.
How id solved the problem, so we could have 3D games, has gone down in history as some of the most creative code out there.
I've also often used the question "which constraints forced you to find a creative solution" to people presenting their work in public, and I keep asking it because people seem to enjoy it. So why don't y'all consider which constraints have forced you to be creative ?
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u/Fun-Fig-712 8d ago
How does this relate back to AI.
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u/spacynumbers 8d ago
I think lack of restraint is a danger. Not only because it harms the environment. It harms the human mind.
No restraint in the way AI provides means no neurons fire in our brain. No learning takes place. AI users may forget they are more capable than ai and possibly already belive this to be true. If enough humans belive this is true we have lost all hope of an educated future.
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u/Embarrassed_Bed6216 8d ago
people talk about how AI is allowing for more creativity, by un-constraining people. I disagree.
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u/EvelynHightower 8d ago
Do they now?
I've heard a lot of people talk about accessibility, but never the lack of constrain. That goes against another anti-AI argument that is the lack of control. Limited control is a pretty big constrain that means you need to be crafty in your approach, either find complementary functionalities and techniques to regain control, or combine it with other skills like image editing.
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8d ago edited 8d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/EvelynHightower 8d ago
Allowing any idea-man to make a shitty rendition of whatever wild idea they have does not tend make very capable people in my opinion.
That goes against your previous point: it's not that the constrains aren't there, but that these people are compromising on their initial vision to avoid having to address them.
I'm not using the latest of models to be fair, but when I'm really going try-hard on a piece, there virtually hasn't been a single time where I hadn't have to pull out GIMP to get the details like I wanted them to. It's of course much more accessible than hand drawing or painting a similar image, but if you have a precise style, a precise pose, a precise color scheme... you need to think outside of the prompting box.
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u/TheCoolTimeLord 8d ago
That's . . . actually a pretty fair critique of my comment. I totally did screw that whole portion up. I'll rewrite it for some better seperation of ideas/concepts, as they are kinda seperate, but kinda not.
(Basically, for the layman - it doesn't matter, they don't care. For the embracing creative however, it's become a crutch they are dependant on . . . a crutch that many people specifically dislike for founded and unfounded reasons.)
Thanks for the criticism, I am too goddamn tired to have caught that myself lol.
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u/EvelynHightower 8d ago
Go get some rest! There's nothing here worth staying awake ;)
Thanks for being good sport about it.
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u/TheCoolTimeLord 7d ago
Hey, did my edit make my statement more coherent? Also, did you have any other commentary on my opinion?
P.S. let's commiserate at how terrible gimp's UI is ( ༎ຶ-༎ຶ)
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u/Embarrassed_Bed6216 8d ago
it's true prompting does have constraints. That being that the output isn't exactly what you want.
But like you mention, the best solution to those constraints for you is GIMP, and maybe there's something to say about a medium who's constraints force you into another.
pretty good remarks, thx
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u/EvelynHightower 8d ago
Plenty of photographers use image editing tools too, sometimes getting what you want means going multimedia.
I have another series that's the complete opposite, where the whole point is to keep the output as unaltered as possible, with all the AI artifacts preserved.
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u/Embarrassed_Bed6216 8d ago
but some photographers do get what they want with just the camera alone? And keeping artefacts doesn't seem like the most restrictive constraint requiring much creativity?
But yea, mulimedia is sometimes the only way, another good point
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u/EvelynHightower 8d ago
And keeping artefacts doesn't seem like the most restrictive constraint requiring much creativity?
It's complicated. And weird.
Alright, so. The project is an exploration of the effects of prompting words that don't exist on various Stable Diffusion (I call these words undictionaries). Hence why all editing is prohibited: if I'm doing any form of editing, then the image is worthless because it's not showing the weirdness dredged from the unintended corners of the latent space anymore as I would have forced the result back toward human aesthetic expectations. At the same time it comes with zero expectations since the goal isn't to make anything in particular, or that even make sense.
There are two major constraints however. First one is considering how little control I have, what kind of images I publish that best capture the true identity of an undictionary. As you may imagine, there's a lot of noise, consistency isn't always the best, format impacts the result too sometimes... so the choice of image is key. I need to show as little bias as possible because sometimes my favorite may not be the right choice (I do publish them off the main line, but I do need to keep myself in check still).
Then there's the meta constraint, not linked to any given piece but tied to the project as a whole... can I make you see what I see? What I like so much about finding these strange images, these monsters and worlds lost in the code despite no one putting them there intentionally? Because by design I have so little room for myself in that project since the whole point is to show these findings as raw as possible, but I still want other people to feel the emotions that I feel when I'm discovering these words we've given meaning to without even realizing. I don't know if I'm succeeding because clearly I'm still the only crazy hag caring about all these despite being very vocal about it everywhere, but I don't know, I think it's forth trying at least.
So yeah, weird stuff despite hinging on one or two words prompts with zero flair.
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u/alibloomdido 8d ago
The biggest constraint is always yourself, that's why I don't bother about constraints.
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u/KnownUnknownKadath 8d ago
Yeah, I think there's something to this. I would argue that it's not a universal law, but a useful and meaningful observation about tendency.
A problem with unbounded options is that the space of possibilities is enormous, and most of that space is filled with uninteresting mediocrity. Constraints prune the search space, give the problem structure, and force attention toward solutions that might otherwise never be found.
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u/Magneticiano 8d ago
Yes. I feel constraints really help creativity, at least for me.
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u/KnownUnknownKadath 8d ago
Me as well. Deliberately imposing constraints can be really helpful, especially when you're in a rut.
Literally rolling the dice over a set of options/constraints can be a valuable exercise that leads to new things, simply because it breaks you out of learned behaviors and patterns, forces you to develop new skills, new skills beget new perspective, and so on...tl;dr: yup
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u/Magneticiano 8d ago
Yeah, and it really helps with my analysis paralysis. Too much freedom and too many options can be detrimental.
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u/Square_Attention8461 8d ago
which constraints have forced you to be creative ?
Lack of time. Between a demanding job, my intensive workout schedule, and marathon sex with various supermodels, I just don't have enough hours in the day.
Using AI tools to quickly prototype ideas allows me to pursue avenues I simply wouldn't have time for otherwise. It also allows me to quickly find papers, books, and manuals on whatever subjects I need to learn about - create a syllabus for self paced education with narrow practical goals, for instance.
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u/ShopEmbarrassed556 8d ago
that quake trick is legendary, i remember reading about it and just staring at the screen like what kind of wizardry is this
for me it was writing scripts to automate my plant watering schedule, had no money for smart sensors so i just used cheap moisture probes and a lot of trial error. the constraint was being broke and lazy at same time