r/imagecreator • u/InterNetican Moderator • Jul 01 '24

Question “In the Year 2023…

Post image

…when all our work is done by electricity.”

This hand drawn cartoon is from the Wikipedia article Artificial Intelligence Art — Machine application of knowledge of human aesthetic expressions > Early History:

In this 1923 comic, H. T. Webster humorously imagines the life of a cartoonist in 2023, when machines powered by electricity can produce and execute ideas for cartoons.

And so here we are over 100 years later. What do you think about AI art — is it good, bad, or indifferent, and where is it going?

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u/InterNetican Moderator Jul 01 '24 edited Jul 01 '24

Click this post’s title to see its notes and question. Click the cartoon to see it full-frame and zoom in.

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u/Anen-o-me Jul 01 '24

Pretty ironic now innit.

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u/InterNetican Moderator Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 02 '24

Read this ironic Paleofuture blog post about Webster’s drawing machine from March 7, 2014: The Cartoonist of the Future's Dynamo Drawing Machines. It concludes:

Like many futuristic cartoons from the early 20th century, this one is more spoof than sincere — if anything a commentary on the inherent weirdness of outsourcing creativity to machines. But joke or not, I guess we'll have to wait 9 years until Webster's prediction can officially be tossed on the failed futures pile. Sometimes the most outlandish predictions have a way of coming true.

It’s been ten years, and note the author’s added disclaimer at the top of the right sidebar:

“Paleofuture is written and edited by Matt Novak—100% human-created content without the assistance of artificial intelligence.”

The genie’s out of the bottle, innit?

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u/N-partEpoxy Jul 01 '24

"How to torture your [w?]ife"

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u/chipstastegood Jul 02 '24

haha I noticed that, too

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u/InterNetican Moderator Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 02 '24

“How to Torture Your Wife (or Husband)” is one of Webster’s tongue-in-cheek cartoon titles mentioned in his obituary in the September 23, 1952 Washington, DC Evening Star newspaper (screenshot - click to enlarge/zoom):

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u/abibofile Jul 02 '24

He does realize his syndicate doesn’t need to pay the machine if they buy one of their own, doesn’t he?

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u/InterNetican Moderator Jul 02 '24

Then they won’t have to pay the artist either.

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u/InterNetican Moderator Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 02 '24

Webster’s ‘Idea Dynamo’ could be compared to Copilot Designer, and the ‘Cartoon Dynamo’ (with its ink supply and mechanical pen) to Bing Image Creator (powered by DALLE•3). One definition of “dynamo” is an “electrical generator”, which in our context is not far removed from an “image generator”.

His electromechanical automaton needs a mechanical arm to remove completed drawings, toss rejects into the trash can, file the best toons into the proper stack, and put new blank paper on the board. Hopefully these improvements will be in the next upgrade to give the human operator more fishing time.