Dave's Book Oath, 2024

Created: 2024-01-21
Updated: 2024-02-08

My oath of January, 2024 is:

              A BIBLIOPHILE'S OATH

I, the undersigned, do solemnly swear that I will
NEVER intentionally purchase a book (print or
otherwise) containing "AI"-generated text or images
derived from the stolen work of human authors and
artists.

If I should somehow come into possession of such a
book, I will make every effort to SAFELY DESTROY
IT to keep it out of the pool of available books.

Though I will look upon any book published after the
year 2023 with healthy suspicion, I will learn which
authors and publishers honor human works and I will
continue to give them my patronage.

I will protect this last safe refuge with my honor.

As oath.txt.

I don’t like to make too many promises or proclamations anymore because I’ve learned about the exciting power of being able to change my mind (and have, in fact, experienced multiple complete 180 degree "flips" on important subjects in the last decade).

But maybe it’s also okay to draw a line in the sand somewhere every once in a while and I feel utterly confident about this one.

Same thing, but without hard-wrapped text

(for small screens, etc.)

A BIBLIOPHILE’S OATH

I, the undersigned, do solemnly swear that I will NEVER intentionally purchase a book (print or otherwise) containing "AI"-generated text or images derived from the stolen work of human authors and artists.

If I should somehow come into possession of such a book, I will make every effort to SAFELY DESTROY IT to keep it out of the pool of available books.

Though I will look upon any book published after the year 2023 with healthy suspicion, I will learn which authors and publishers honor human works and I will continue to give them my patronage.

I will protect this last safe refuge with my honor.

Wait…​destroy books?!

Please understand that I am 100% opposed to banning, burning, or otherwise making books inaccessible based on ideology.

Computer generated content printed on paper and bound into a book shape is not a "book" in the sense of a thing that can be banned or burned because of ideology. It is a lazy, opportunistic, plagiarized block of garbage in book shape. It is a book mimic. It has no ideology (well, other than pure nihilism) to oppose.