podcast friday

[sabotabby]

 Podcast Friday Saturday. Whoops, no one told me that yesterday was Friday. I should have known based on it being called "Good Friday" and the previous day having been Thursday, but to be quite honest I am very tired.

Anyway. This week's podcast that you simply must listen to is the season finale of AURORA AWARD-NOMINATED PODCAST Wizards & Spaceships "AI and Transhumanism ft. Robert J. Sawyer." The renowned sci-fi author talks about the existential threats posed by GenAI and the deep rot and grift at its core. 

As you know, Bob, I have strong, spicy, and controversial opinions on this topic and in particular on why, even though no one asked for this, even though GenAI is not a profitable business for anyone and is threatening to tank the global economy when its speculation bubble bursts, it is still being rammed down our throats. While there are more obvious and immediate threats—the genocide in Gaza, the mass deportations of immigrants and citizens and persecution of trans people in the former US—GenAI to me is a microcosm of the lie at the heart of the liberal democratic order. It improves no one's lives and adds nothing good to the world and yet we are all being forced to believe that it is inevitable. Sawyer's righteous rant is the counterbalance to that narrative that you need right now.

P.S. does anyone want more art history posts from me? I mean you're getting them regardless, but I'm curious to know.

Comments

[sonia]

Yes please on the art history posts, that was fabulous!

And as someone with a computer science masters in AI from 1991, I fully agree with this rant.

[sabotabby]

Excellent on both.

[dissectionist]

I always enjoy reading art history. I will especially love it if Art Deco enters the chat, but I’ll read about any era any time!

[sabotabby]

The next one will be about Dada but I'll see if I can figure out an unnerving historical parallel with Art Deco at some point.

[agoodwinsmith]

Art history me up, baby.

[sabotabby]

Awesome.

[radiantfracture]

Yes please more art history.

[sabotabby]

Yay!

[sovay]

P.S. does anyone want more art history posts from me? I mean you're getting them regardless, but I'm curious to know.

Yes, obviously.

[sabotabby]

Yay!

[kore]

GenAI to me is a microcosm of the lie at the heart of the liberal democratic order. It improves no one's lives and adds nothing good to the world and yet we are all being forced to believe that it is inevitable.

A-fucken-men, it's absolutely infuriating.

Yes please more art posts! I might not comment bc t is still recovering, but the last one was so great.

[sabotabby]

The weirdest thing is that even though no one asked for it and no one likes it, I repeatedly see its defenders trying to wedge its use into every aspect of their existence, trying to find a reason for it to be stealing their jobs. "What if I'm blind and I just use it as a screenreader" well buddy you're not blind and screenreaders have existed for years.

[moon_custafer]

I too would like some more art-history posts.

[sabotabby]

I will get on it!

[minoanmiss]

I love it when you talk about art history

[sabotabby]

Yay!

[lizbee]

I would absolutely love to know more about abstract art -- I go to galleries and I'm like, "I like this, it makes me feel a way, but I don't understand it and I need more context." (I am also happy to take book recs, if that's easier.)

[sabotabby]

Hah, I can try. The problem is I'm not a super big fan of Abstract Expressionism and the context is basically "capitalism and the CIA" (I can go on and on about how this was done without the knowledge or consent of the artists, though).

[lizbee]

Well now I'm REALLY curious!

(When I was 17, one of my mum's fashy friends gave me a book about how decadent art and poetry (so everything from Modernism forward) represent the decline of modern society. Naturally I instantly became a fan of all modern art and poetry, but ALSO I don't really trust my taste because my reactions are purely aesthetic, and I feel like there's maybe an intellectual context that I'm missing out on. At the same time, if Yayoi Kusama want to comment on the commercialisation and commodification of art by selling me polka dot socks for $25, who am I to argue?)

[sabotabby]

The short version is that while Abstract Expressionism has never been especially popular or accessible to anyone other than art critics (and, presumably, other artists) it was heavily promoted by the CIA through travelling shows in Europe. It was meant to contrast with the just-as-boring-if-not-more-so socialist realism phase that gripped Stalin's Russia—basically, look how free our artists are in America!

Thing is, while I don't know the politics of every single artist of the era, some of the most prominent ones, including Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell, were committed leftists and no fans of the CIA. So while I don't think they were big into Stalin either (Motherwell, at least, was an anarchist, and Pollock was kind of a New Deal socialist type who supported strikes), they would not have liked their art being used as such.

Kusama I think is quite cool. Again, I don't know tons about her politics but she manages to be both critical and wholesome.

[greylock]

I'm going to vote for art history too.
I also got confused about which day it was.

I feel like I missed episodes 10 and 11 of W&S too. I'll try and listen tomorrow.

[sabotabby]

Easter is strange. Workdays are somehow magically turned into days without work, which is lovely but confusing.

[greylock]

I assume as members of the Free World, we have days off, and Members of FreeDOM do not?
It's confusing to have a four day weekend, And one of the few days of the year NOTHING is open.

I am #Team4DayWeek myself.

[flamingsword]

I love art history to the point that when I was a teen and twentysomething I wanted to be an art restorer. Please keep using art history to throw unflattering context on various modern media and sociopolitics.

[sabotabby]

Haha, thanks. If it wasn't teachers college, it was going to be grad school for art history. Alas, they don't pay you to make connections between early 20th-century avant-garde art and contemporary politics for some reason.

[agoodwinsmith]

Except that it would be a lot of work, considering your acerbic style I think a scatter-shot collection of art history articles (in book-shape) would be a hit.

[sabotabby]

Hah, don't tempt me. I have enough projects on the go (and am a sloppy researcher anyway).

[agoodwinsmith]

I don't want your research; I want your smart mouth and interesting connections. Oh yeah.

[symbioid]

One thing I don't get - and maybe it's just an Elon thing (is he even a "transhumanist"?)... When I was an Extropian/Transhumanist, to me the whole point was to transcend all these boundaries to become beyond human.

Now these assholes want the AI and all that shit, BUT ALSO FORCE YOU BACK INTO THE CAVES LIKE THE HUMAN FLESHLINGS YOU ARE (BREED FOR ME).

WTF? And the whole "Long Now" thing - I think there are some people involved in that who do want to envision things on longer time scales, because Capital is so next-quarter, but it seems both conveniently ignore the medium-term which is where human existence really lies. I suppose that's convenient. And gives justification for "WE ARE DOING THIS TO SAVE US YOU MORTALS" (even if you're a fucking idiot mortal too, thanks for thinking you have the answers and not letting us have a voice, dickweeds).

I should listen to this one in particular because of the transhuman aspect. IDK how much that plays a role, but it sounds like you're talking about the contradictions in that worldview?

[sabotabby]

Robert's conclusion is that transhumanism is largely silly but harmless when practiced by consenting adults on themselves, except where it distracts from solving real problems (while acknowledging that we use all kinds of adaptive technology to improve our lives). But there's a difference between, say, a hearing aid and thinking that you're going to be immortal in the Singularity and the rich bastards in charge aren't just going to purge all your files if you don't pay your subscription fee.

They really all think we're going to be satisfied living in a tiny box in a virtual reality simulation where we don't have legs.