A ten-year-old of whom I am awfully fond recently visited a mall for the first time and was stunned by all it had to offer. The experience of a child visiting the mall for the first time is like the internet coming alive—everything one might only perceive of as available via an internet browser right there in front of you, available to touch without needing to use a search engine as arbiter or guide. In the mall, you are the search engine.

As some of you may know, in addition to products the internet also contains information and resources. Perhaps you use Google to access that information. Perhaps you have even encountered Google’s new AI-generated search overviews.

It looks like this:

Essentially, Google search is now ranking AI-generated summaries over human-written articles, in some cases, preventing users from “needing” to visit websites at all, as Google could ostensibly provide them with the results they need right there.1

This new use of AI has all kinds of ramifications. To say nothing of what this could mean for media producers/creators, Google has also been criticized for its wildy innaccurate AI-generated search summaries telling users about the health benefits of running with scissors and stating that geologists recommend eating one rock per day. 🤣

Some pundits are saying that websites that have historically depended on traffic from search engines may be at risk of losing as much as 40 to 60% of their traffic. While on the one hand these ramifications are scary and ominous, I’m also intrigued by the idea that these new uses of technology could reshape the way we use the web, which could be kind of exciting/promising. Decentralization, anyone?2

All of this is to underscore that nature is better than AI and always will be.

Three quarters of the way through a recent interview with Gail Wipplehauser, Maine’s first eel biologist, I asked, “Okay, Gail, if eels are nocturnal, how do we explain all the activity I see during daylight hours?”

Before responding, Gail asked a series of questions like a (good) doctor, familiar with the river in question and what elvers in “Maine” are up to at this point in the season. Using a series of graduated questions that I provided specific answers to, Gail came to some possible explanations (making me feel seen and heard along the way). Thank you, Gail.

In short, the (not-so-unusual) diurnal eel activities I’ve observed could be a result of eels transitioning into the next phase in their life cycle and needing to eat all the time.

I will now illuminate why interviewing people is better than Googling or ChatGPT, using my recent interview with Gail as an example.

Me: What is the most interesting thing about the American eel?

Gail: Well, when we were doing our research in the out in the ocean, it's like, how the heck do they find each other? I mean, it's really big ocean out there. It'd be interesting to see if eels come out of a river system all together. I know that they tend to move out when it's raining at night in October or September in the dark of night. I've heard stories about balls of eels coming out of the St Lawrence long ago. So that's that's something I've always wondered about.

Google AI-overview: The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) has many interesting characteristics, including its life cycle, adaptations, and migration.

Me: What’s the most misunderstood aspect of the American eel?

Chat GPT: The most misunderstood aspect of the American eel is its mysterious and complex life cycle, particularly its reproductive habits.

One thing you would not learn from a Google search that you might learn from talking to this particular eel biologist, one hour into a conversation (that I didn’t want to end)4 is that it’s fun to watch pigmented eels eat steak. It’s called rotational feeding. Look it up.

In short, talk to people. Use the internet wisely.5 Reduce. Don’t run with scissors, but if you do, make sure to hold them far away from your body while opening and closing the blades rapidly and yelling, “Internet!”6

Various and…

A Residency

This summer, I will be spending 10 days at Hewnoaks Artist Residency, my first-ever residency. If you have done a residency and have advice, I am soliciting it. I’ve been so focused on the lack of wi-fi, phone service, being away from my family, and disbelief that this opportunity is actually happening that I haven’t sunk into the pleasure/possibilities of this time. I am excited, honored, and grateful.

A Balloon

The other day I was handed a balloon and an envelope. I was on a stage at the Maine Literary Awards in a room full of sweet and talented humans, receiving the 2024 Bodwell Fellowship—a fellowship given annually to a member of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance7 who has been selected to spend time at Hewnoaks Artist Colony. Thank you, MWPA!

One Small Step Lives!

StoryCorps recently announced that WERU Community Radio (the station I worked with last year) was selected as a One Small Step alumni station.

This means I’ll be facilitating more conversations and Chris will be producing some of them into short pieces for the radio (with participants’ permission). We’ll also be putting on two trainings and a public event of some sort. Drop a line to torchlightmaine@gmail.com if you want to collaborate/get involved/help recruit.

One Small Step will not save the world but I remain thrilled about the ripples, nevertheless.

Nourishing Resistance: Book Talk and Symposium on Food Protest and Mutual Aid

Saturday, June 15
5:30 p.m. potluck / 6:30 p.m. readings and speakers
Farwell’s 37 Gordon Hill Road in Thorndike (right next to Boxcar Books)

This gathering is to celebrate the visit of Wren Awry, who edited the new anthology, Nourishing Resistance: Stories of Food, Protest, and Mutual Aid from PM Press, who will be present at this event (presumably along with copies of the book for sale). Link of Boxcar Books is putting together a group of folks who will speak in relation to the anthology’s themes. I am one of those people who will be speaking but as Link has said elsewhere, this is a community symposium thus all are invited to bring their questions, enthusiasm, thoughts, and commentary to this conversation.

New Work in the World

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. But…all things being equal, my first magazine feature story will be coming out in October. Stay tuned. (There will be eels!) 🤩

Currents

WHERE24

Atlantic Black Box is convening a number of walks and events in so-called “Maine” in 2024, alongside partner organizations.

Seven sites. Seven months. Seven chances to move in solidarity toward truth & transformation.

Over the course of 2024, partners committed to surfacing the truths of colonization and oppression in the place known for millennia by the Wabanaki people as the dawnland will engage with local communities on a journey across land and water, and across time.

Devon Kelley-Yurdin

Interdisciplinary artist, educator, facilitator, and cultural organizer Devon Kelley-Yurdin has a new newsletter. Newsletter topics include: divesting from arts applications, upcoming projects, and starting before you’re ready.

I’m inspired by Devon’s ethos and where it leads them. Maybe you will be, too.

Color of the Pool

I once lived in a small village in northern Cameroon with no electricity. Occasionally, there would be a party and someone would rent a generator and speakers. Music would last into the night. Sometimes, it would be the same song over and over and over until morning.

While I have electricity and streaming music services but I do this, too—lately, it’s “Color of the Pool” by Lala Lala. I live in the saxophone at the end of the song.

What is your favorite song today/this week/right now? Will you post a link to it below as a comment so we can all enjoy it?

Being a Human

Here are some ways to support and tend to our shared humanity:

• gazafunds.com
• Jewish Voices for Peace
• Palestinian Youth Movement
• Maine Coalition 4 Palestine
• eSims for Gaza
• 5 Calls
• Doctors without Borders
• This American Life: Yousef

xo and thank you for reading,

Michele

PS You can’t add footnotes to captions. Re: dams, I would like to add the recent stories: Brookfield: the dam king of Maine by Murray Carpenter in the Maine Monitor and World weighs in on fate of 4 Maine dams blocking passage of endangered salmon by Lori Valigra in the Bangor Daily News.