Someone Else’s Reality: Nature-led Thoughts on AI

March 23, 2026 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 23 Comments

Hello Nature-led Friends!

Human to human, I sincerely hope you are doing well wherever you are! Let’s be feral for a moment because I’ve got some crunchy thoughts.

I will not support Artificial Intelligence (AI) and I will not defend its use. It was corrupted at the moment of its inception to become a profit-driven machine. Spare me your stories of what AI could do for humanity when what it has done to society and the environment cannot be forgiven These insufferable arrogant rich technology bros and their companies built a learning machine and taught it how to steal from other people so they could throw up their hands and declare themselves free of any wrongdoing. The gun killed your child; not the person that aimed and pointed it, not the company that designed it for maximum velocity and stopping force upon the human body. The tool, offering you thoughts and prayers.

Napster was shut down in 2001 for its file sharing database due to copyright infringement. It was back to burning CDs that we owned to make mixed tapes/CDs for friends, family and love interests. Then somewhere around 2010 Google has the idea to copy every book ever written to put into a big searchable database, aka a for-profit library. People could search it for free and download the text for a fee paid only to them for their “service.” They initially hammered out the details and profitability of it by starting with “orphan works” and public domain; texts that had no known copyright holders. Concerns among writers and publishers started to be murmured.

Neither you nor I have the time to go into the accounting, line item by line item, of how capitalism came to dominate the internet and conquer American society. It’s not even a new story! Special interest groups have been puppeteering from behind the scenes of governance for as long as human civilization has existed. What’s different now is that technology gave us digital wings and with these wings a group of “Just trust me, Bro.” asshats with money and influence want to fly us all too close to the proverbial sun.

As an individual you might support causes you believe in by donating, volunteering, writing letters, buying goods and services from people and companies you respect and sharing your experience with others. All of these efforts have been “built to scale”, maximized, and incentivized by companies and organizations to get what they want. All of it for money, all of it for the greedy few who want to be kings of make-believe people and make-believe lands at the cost of real people and real land.

I had to put up with guys like this in high school. The ones that showed up to art class wearing “business casual.” The one’s that would ask me a question “as a woman” and then proceed to tell me what my opinion should be. Every time I scoffed, they took it as a challenge. I was categorized in their shrimp-sized brains as a wild creature to be tamed, or a land to be conquered. To them, no didn’t mean no, it meant try harder or find another way. Tenacity can be a good thing when you’re trying to improve yourself, it’s tyrannical when you apply it to others.

Artificial Intelligence, as in Large Language Models (LLMs), could have been something magical, but it’s corrupted by its human creators. It drinks from a hose of toxic filth while polluting and depriving both real and figurative bodies of water, and of knowledge for all other users. I don’t see how I can willingly use any LLM to put good things out into the world when it’s designed to extract resources from nature (even more) for the fleecing of everyone else (yet again) so that a handful of multibillionaires can bolster their private empires.

Generative AI is what you commonly hear referred to as “AI Slop” because it was trained on the works of real people; artists, creators, and working professionals in a variety of fields without their permission, recognition or compensation. Actual humans who need jobs and money to meet their basic needs of survival for themselves and their families. There are few things I despise more than insincerity. I can’t think of anything more insincere or dishonest than being expected to pay for an AI-written story about what it means to be human so that some feckless crash-test dummy of a genius can make money. No one will benefit more from AI then scammers and corporations pretending they aren’t a trenchcoat full of scammers.

Opt-Out! Support real artists & crafters, real local businesses and members of your online and offline community. If we aren’t the stakeholders, why are we supporting people who don’t care about us or the places we live and love? If corporations are ungovernable, then we should be too!

I’d like to know your thoughts!

What kind of reality do you want for the future?

Relevant Links:

A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2001) – Copyright infringement is bad.

Authors Guild v Google ( 2015 Decision)
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/13-4829/13-4829-2015-10-16.html – Copyright infringement is cool for Tech companies if they share some of that sweet, sweet revenue.

Citizens United v FEC: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/558/310/ – Corporations are people now; we’re not concerned about the lack of morality when they donate millions into presidential campaigns.

US Telecom Assoc, v FCC: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/15-1063/15-1063-2016-06-14.html – The internet is not a utility with government oversight. Telecomm companies can charge what they want.

Past, Present, & Future

January 4, 2026January 4, 2026 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 8 Comments

_{Fall Leaves Taken on Nov 3, 2025 By Melanie Reynolds}

Hello Nature-led friends!

It’s January 2026 already and there’s a lot going on in the world! While I have many concerns about the fate of humanity and the fate of the planet itself, I’m still hopeful and excited about the year to come! There will always be opposing forces at work because of physics, but also because ideologically there is no one-sizes-fits-all utopia. A dog’s heaven is a squirrel’s hell. I will always be a voice for nature and the unseen. I hope you will too! Only 1/8 of my thoughts and ideas ever make it to this space but if it ignites even a fraction of passion in you to be part of the living world and lead with empathy beyond yourself. That’s good enough for me. We should all strive to remain slightly feral.

In 2024, I didn’t know how to tell you I had cancer or that I was fighting to get my mom out of a terrible rehabilitation center that she was involuntarily sent to by the hospital mafia in my hometown. So, I’m telling you now. Those things happened and I fought like hell and I’m missing a few spare parts, but I’m still here and I’m cancer-free and my mom is still here and in a much better place. I couldn’t have made it through either of those things without the support of my friends and family and the community at large. I’ve never been the kind of person who likes to do things by phone, but I called and called anyone and everyone that could help me. I wore out the pavement on a four-hour drive to and from my hometown and my home. I made new friends and allies. I was forced to learn, grow, adapt and innovate when all I wanted to do was sleep.

In 2025, I had to continue strengthening my body and mind to new realities. No one wants to talk about how long recovery because it’s boring and it can sound a lot like whining. It’s hard to give our bodies time to adjust to the slow process of healing when our brains are living in societies that offer next day delivery and 24-hour conveniences. In short, I messed up my feet trying to do a lot of walking for exercise and then I had that to also recover from. Sigh.

_{Autumn Alder Tree Taken on Nov 3, 2025 By Melanie Reynolds}

All these pictures of fall tree colors I took in November. It had been raining a lot like it always does this time of year, but then it started raining harder for longer. By the second week of December, we got hit with two back-to-back and one smaller atmospheric river hit that caused multiple rivers to surpass flood stage in Western Washington. Several valleys flooded including the Skagit valley, Snoqualmie valley, and the Fraser River valley in southern British Columbia. Levees failed and over 100,000 people had to evacuate throughout the region. One person died after driving into flood waters in Snohomish and around 1,000 water rescues were performed.

We experienced flooding in the region before, so people are really good at coming together for those in need. When the Everett Animal shelter was in threat of being flooded people were quick to show up and take all 120 animals to their homes to be safe. I’d like to hope that a few adoptions happened as a result of the awareness that so many animals are available for adoption at just one shelter.

Below are pictures of the Snoqualmie Valley flooding that cutoff the city of Duvall from Redmond and Woodinville.

Flooded Farm in Snoqualmie Valley Dec 11, 2025. Mike Jagla

Flooded Wood-Duvall Rd Dec 11, 2025. Mike Jagla

Morning Mist Snoqualmie Valley Dec 11, 2025 Mike Jagla

I’m thankful that the casualty number for this disaster as it currently stands is one person as far as we know. My heart goes out to the people who have lost their homes and cherished possessions to the flood waters. Some of the people recently flooded were flooded back in 2021 and the lack of funding and affordable housing means that people cannot “just move” out of harm’s way. No one can predict that a 100-year flood event is going to happen twice in five years while the government argues what they will and won’t pay for and when.

One of the things that bothered me most is the amount of AI videos and pictures I saw that quickly popped up on Facebook and other social media sites that callously exploited the disaster for peoples’ own amusement and greedy dopamine hits that had nothing to do with what was actually going on. Really people and animals were affected and when other people start to question what’s true and what’s not true, it can impact disaster response and the amount of aid and donations that people and organizations could receive for recovery.

I’m currently volunteering four hours a week at a youth shelter and advocacy organization because I believe that when you don’t know what else to do with yourself and you want to help others, you should start with the people closest to you. Show up for your community in a way that works for you. It can be one-time, it can be once a month, or it can be once or twice a week. The level of commitment is up to you. Just reach out to organizations that support causes you care about and see how you can help. I find it fun and rewarding because I know I’m doing something that matters. It’s cathartic to help others even when I feel like a walking disaster on the inside.

Now, go play outside and/or go read a book to shelter animals!

Stay Tuned….

Next Sunday January 11th I’ll be posting the resulting taste test of the Dandelion wine I bottled back on Jan 10, 2022! (See post: https://nature-led.org/2021/04/22/happy-earth-day-2021-may-hope-persist-like-dandelions/ )

Why Our Stories Matter: The Human Narrative

June 19, 2025 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 7 Comments

Hello Nature-Led Friends!

Right now, I feel overwhelmed by a lot of things honestly. This website has been accessed and likely scrapped by AI without permission or acknowledgement like millions of other websites. Our words and pictures stolen without opt in, consent or recognition.

If a human looked at our monthly challenges and used them to become a better artist by referencing them only to become better at say “drawing moss” or “drawing a camellia” that’s fair use. I’ve never had a problem with that. AI, however, puts us all in a blender and spits out an amalgamation of our written words and images with no context and no soul. People profit off of AI-generated theft, but not the creators whose works and words and thoughts were stolen to to make the LLM (large language models) learn for the profit of Tech companies and scammers. One can hardly tell the difference between the two these days.

The artist community is in turmoil. We’ve never had our works stolen at such a vast magnitude before. While I would love to have illustrated art go with my stories, I’m not going to do it by using AI. I couldn’t expect a visual artist to respect my writing if I was using AI art and I wouldn’t respect them for using AI to do the writing for them. Artists are notorious for having to struggle to survive in Western societies to make art and it’s never been fair. Creation is often at its best when it seeks collaboration with other human artists, that’s how communities are born

Many of us are in a depressive state. Why bother? If our work it just going to get stolen why should we bother creating at all? Society seems fine with the novelty of regurgitated AI slop so far. If society sees no problem with using AI over humans, in the most fundamental act of being human why should we feed the machine?

We tell our stories through writing, performance and visuals to connect with other humans on a sacred level. It’s how we reach out with our spirit to see and be seen. We use art to better understand ourselves and the world around us. It is culture. It is the foundation of how we communicate who we are as a people. In many cultures textiles aren’t just made as clothes to be worn but to signify where you are from. You can tell who someone’s people are by the colors and the patterns used in different regions of Latin America or SE Asia, for example.

If you think societies are too big to fail, the Romans would like to have a word with you. All we have left is what we leave behind; writing, sculptures, textiles, metal works, pottery etc. Why have we lost so many Indigenous societies to time? Because they shared their history, traditions and culture through an oral tradition. When no one was left to speak the language, to tell the story, the spirit of that nations people died. The art, if not passed down, absorbs back into the landscape.

As I’ve been turning inward lately to focus on nurturing the natural world and people around me, I’ve also been reading a lot, mostly fiction and short stories. I’m a little burnt out on most Nonfiction at the moment, unless it’s told from a personal perspective.

Some Books read so far in 2025, not pictured Hillbilly Elegy, a library loan.

Fiction currently read

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Memory Wall (A collection of stories) By Anthony Doerr

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

And my favorite so far this year:

Never Whistle at Night (An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology) Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

As a collected work from various authors some spoke to me more than others, but several of these stories will stay with me a long time. I never thought I liked horror, but the truth is, I like horror/suspense with something to say. Stories that make us face uncomfortable truths are important to our understanding of the world around us. I’m not interested in blood and violence for the sake of graphic shock value. Some of these stories will leave you disturbed, I think, in a meaningful way.

Nonfiction Narratives currently read

Officer Clemmons, A Memoir by Dr Francois S. Clemmons

Dr. Clemmons shares his personal story on what it was like to grow up as a young, gay Black man in the 1940s. His personal account adds depth, flavor, and emotion to a time and lived experience that I will never know personally. The U.S. could really use Fred Roger’s clarity and grace right now.

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

I started with an open mind. I read the introduction and the first two chapters and learned all I needed to know about the author. No stories of hunting and fishing, swimming in a crik (creek), driving a tractor, cuttin’ trees, or community coming together during a great storm or tragedy. Instead, you get him making assumptions and passing judgement on people around him to justify that he’s better than they are.

What upset me the most is his account of walking down the street with his cousin and seeing a house and the eyes of suspicious children peeking from windows and a summation of their father, true or not, that he was an addict spending all his money on his drugs/alcohol and not his family. This is what Mr. Vance uses to launch into a manifesto on his opinion (peppered with statistics so you think he’s smart ‘cause that’s what they taught him to do at that fancy Ivy league school he graduated from) so he can tell you, the reader, what’s wrong with working class, rural Americans.

He didn’t talk to those kids; he didn’t talk to the dad. He built a narrative at their expense to write a book to further his reputation outside of Appalachia for money, praise and political opportunity. The worst kind of theft among people who may have little in terms of material value. He as no right to give a elegy on people he never bothered to really get to know.

Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Ella E. Clark

There’s a right way to share someone else’s story. It starts with permission whenever possible. If permission isn’t possible (i.e. they’re dead and necromancy isn’t within your ability) then with acknowledgement up front that you feel that this person’s story is important and worth remembering and why it’s important to you.

We can argue whether a White person had the right to collect the stories of indigenous people back in 1953, but what if Ella E. Clark hadn’t chosen to do so out of her own interest to learn indigenous peoples’ stories? Would these stories have been lost to the indigenous youth of today or is there an indigenous historian I’m not aware of that has collected similar stories into one book? These stories were gathered from living Elders who were in their eighties and nineties at the time that they told them. Some of the stories come from even earlier origins as relayed to anthropologists and government employees either by the people themselves or by pioneers who had become familiar with their indigenous neighbors.

The introduction is respectful and gives credit where credit is due. There is extensive notetaking and what I really like the most is the brief introduction to the storyteller and something unique about them. Each storyteller of the oral tradition is also a performer. I’ve heard multiple tellings of the story “Raven Steals the Sun” and each version varies a little by who’s telling it. Storytelling is both a gift and an art form.

Alternative story forms, a side note:

I once saw a one-woman Noh play when I was in high school Creative Writing class. I was really skeptical that one person could hold my attention for two hours in such a way, but the whole class was meeting after school hours to attend the small performance and there would be dinner at a nice restaurant afterwards, so I thought it was worth giving it a try. I’m so glad I did! I’ve never seen anything like it and I think about it often. She would quick-change characters on the spot by simple props. Hair up with glasses is one character. A shawl about her shoulders and a cane is another character. Just one prop and a change in mannerisms introduced a new character and it was fascinating to watch. I was riveted by the whole thing, the quick change is part of the performance. Even after the show when we had the opportunity to talk to her and thank her for her performance I was left to wonder which version of her were we talking too. Since then, I’ve always seen people as multi-dimensional. Some have more versions of themselves than others.

The Japanese have always had an understanding of the public face/private face. The version strangers see and the version our family and friends see. This takes me to the thought of the masks made by war veterans during an experimental art therapy program that started around 2015. It encourages soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress to paint a mask in an attempt to help them verbalize their traumatic experiences. The resulting mask is not the point, but the context of the themes that arise from it. (Links to stories about the Veterans and their masks. Military Veteran Project News – Military Veteran Project, Healing Soldiers | National Geographic, Behind the Mask – Art, Healing and Self-Discovery (A UK project story)

Wherever you are, I hope you are well! Get outside, read books, eat well, and make time for the people and things that matter to you! My fellow creators will not stop creating, we will just need to be more mindful about how we create, why we create and who we are creating it for. I’ve just started exploring growing Bonsai trees and reading How to be a Craftivist: The Art of Gentle Protest By Sarah P. Corbett.

What are you currently learning about or reading? I genuinely want to know!

In Memoriam:

My Uncle Rich passed yesterday morning. He’s free now from the excruciating pain of cancer and for that I’m grateful, but I’ll miss the timbre of his voice, abundant empathy, hearty laugh, warm bear hugs and beautiful smile.

I’ve been listening to this song a lot lately…(Arcane is an anime based off a video game.)

_{Ref A: 2A398833CE0A4E2BAF9AFDD723E49412 Ref B: STBEDGE0208 Ref C: 2021-07-28T03:10:42Z}