In short, in this project, I aim to become the world’s first mixed media influencer (gross, I know).

Okay so there are tons of really famous mixed-media influencers out there, but I promise this is a bit different. For one thing, the traditional v-tuber/vocaloid/whatever Grimes is creates a persona external to themselves and embodies it (often times with a team). The result is a character of the creator’s creation that is a complete fiction. They have a fictional name, a fictional personality, likes and dislikes dictated by brand deals, and so on. In the Zy Mazza project, my online persona is completely “real” in the sense that I will not pretend to be something I’m not for the sake of the brand. It’s also real in the sense that I am Zy Mazza (real, government name). I will conceal certain aspects of myself (certainly), but I won’t create ex-nihilo personality quirks for the sake of self-promotion.

Onto the cooler part of what makes the project unique: the technology. If you haven’t noticed, there’s a bit of a generative AI boom happening all around us. For many, this tech seems theoretical and a little impractical–and that’s kinda true for now. But! We are entering a cool time where the technology required to do what I want to do is for the first time making it possible and readily attainable to the unwashed masses like myself. If I had to sum it up (poorly), I would call it:

I, like many people, do a lot of cool stuff that I would like to spend more time doing. I go on crazy adventures in my decrepit 1960s airplane, a fair amount of shitty ice skating (improving every session), a LOT of skateboarding with trained dogs to pull me around, and in the next 5 years I’m trying to break ground on Eden on Earth and get into falconry. I’m also terminally shy, I hate being vulnerable, and being recognized in public, even by an acquaintance, can instantly ruin my day. So what’s a guy to do?

Well I’ll create a digital avatar is what I will do. I’ll film the silly little videos, and you’ll get to see exactly what I’m doing, in the exact manner that I’m doing it, only you’ll never actually see me. A neat compromise, no? I think this sort of thing appeals to a lot of people (the unconscious draw of the meta-verse, no doubt), so I doubt I’ll be the only person into this or long. But for now, at this intersection of available technology and a the small portion of agency I have been allotted, I can try to be the first to do this.

Of course I’ll play games and stream that and stuff. That’s low hanging fruit. Unfortunately I spend more time than I ought to playing games, but fortunately that sort of thing is popular online and is actually the standard fare for a newly minted digital homunculus like Zy. But what I really want to get into streaming is stuff like camping trips and flights, skateboarding new and exciting roads with my dogs, and building the world I want to live in.

So there will likely be a youtube channel (although I may just host everything here), I’ll maintain a little twitter, maybe get a discord going, and just generally exist online as a cute anime girl sharing the things I like to do with the world.

And what of this “influencing” stuff? What do I mean by this?

These are influencers according to AI–not really what I’m going for.

When I say I am trying to be a mixed-media influencer, I don’t mean I want to get brand deals and shill for products to drive a cycle of consumption and enrich myself. Although I confess there are some sponsorships I’d happily accept (like AOPA’s Air Safety Institute). When I think of the platonic ideal of the influencer, I think of this guy fro Germany I started following on Twitter just recently, @fabiankunick. At the time of this writing he doesn’t have many followers, though I’m very confident if he keeps it up that will change. This guy is working on something he calls the Magic Philosophy Company, and somehow it’s kind of working?

So this guy has never made a dollar off of me. If he put out a merch line, I’m not sure if I’d buy anything, so he maybe never will. I also don’t think he cares! Granted everyone wants more money, but that’s not the primary impetus of his project. Even if it is! Who cares? That’s not what I take away from it. He’s never made any money off of me, but he sure has “influenced” me plenty. I found his posts charming, and I thought it was neat he was dedicating so much of his time to something that was clearly (at the time) only meaningful to him, and next thing you know I’m doing this nonsense! Now that’s an influencer! I have been utterly influenced and now I’m trying to influence you. The ripples are endlessly expanding.

In my first post yesterday I called upon (both of) my readers to start working on something they’ve been thinking about, because that’s what influencing means to me. It’s not about building a brand for profit, but rather about actually influencing people into making themselves and the world a better place. When I go skateboarding with my dogs, I often imagine the three of us and my skateboard as a system of vectors (which we basically are). I have very limited control over the direction and velocity of the dogs, but I have a lot of control over my direction and velocity.

So the dogs are the two blue lines, and me and my skateboard are the black line. Generally, my “goal” is to center the red line, which is the sum of the three vectors, and also the actual direction and speed at which we all three are traveling as a system. In response to the two blue lines, I modify my black line to keep that red line centered. The dogs naturally respond to the movement of the whole system and adjust accordingly. Now it’s my turn to adjust again.

The world is like this. It’s a system of billions of vectors. that are propelling us in a direction we call “making history.” The “velocity” in this case is really your influence, in economic, social, and physical terms. The rich and powerful are bigger vectors than the rest of us, but we still have absolute control over our own velocity and direction. I’m thinking a lot more seriously about my black line in this world of billions of vectors. That may be silly, and it may be an excersize in futility, but that’s ultimately what this is all about.

My thesis: If the world see’s a qt anime girl flying planes, ice skating, raising birds of prey, farming, admiring churches, and building Eden on Earth, more people are going to want to do stuff like that. When more people are into stuff like that, from my point of view, the world will be a better place. It’ll certainly be a more comfortable place for people like me. Dare I say, for people like us?