don’t wait, regulate (13. 810)

Courtesy of Dangerous Minds, we learn that earlier this week in Warsaw, a group of around thirty bipedal humanoids along with a few quadrupedal robot dogs staged a protest on behalf of their minders demanding that the government take up legislation to place curbs on AI and automation to ease the transition, encourage public debate and lessen the potential disruptive impact for the jobs market. The rally took place on the streets in front of the Ministry of Digital Affairs (Ministerstwo Cyfryzaccji, founded originally in 2015, declared defunct in 2020 and reestablished in 2023, and its head, deputy prime minister under the Tusk government, Krzysztof Gawkowski came down to meet with the chanting participants, saying his department was drafting laws and got into a debate with a robot that the current motion before parliament had insufficient protections for workers from redundancy. Bills pending passage also would mandate the use of sandboxes for more rigorous safety testing before release and alerting the public to possible breaches of containment, the protests occurring as global attention is focused on the potential for AI to precipitate an existential calamity.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Politically Incorrect (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth the revisit

two years ago: the Oscars of US government workers, getting to philosophy, Israel attacks Hezbollah with booby-trapped walkie-talkies plus sinkholes and megaslumps 

three years ago: spinning bowls of ramen 

four years ago: covering the Queen’s funeral,  cats stealing food in still lifes plus a singular Cyrillic glyph

five years ago: Fawlty Towers, a vintage flash comic, a collection of mixology guides, Ötzi discovered (1991) plus a Soviet Moon mission

six years ago: a warning label for explicit lyrics plus RIP RBG

seven years ago: the art of knolling, the music of Eisbær plus reducing plastic waste in fast food take-aways

eight years ago: a Hieronymus Bosch demonic fowl on the subway, guillotine earrings,  proto emoticons, more Universal Everything plus the Cassandra Syndrome

 

day one hundred ninety-five (13. 809)

Citing Patriot missile battery shortage, US NATO envoy tells allies to “dig deeper” and contribute more to the common cause. Days after opening a Chinese cyborg factory in the country, Serbia unveils an armed robot dog. South Korea decides there will be no deployment of troops to the Middle East. The Trump administration rejects UN allegations of war crimes and Israelis express displeasure over sanctions imposed by the UK, Canada, Australia and the EU over illegal settlements in the West Bank, continued deaths and demolition in Gaza. As air raid sirens go off in Riyadh and other areas of the kingdom, warning of drone strikes from the Houthis, the US appears to content to watch from the sidelines as the rebels take the Bab al-Mandeb strait. Denmark grants the US permanent control over the security of Greenland in an attempt to save it from annexation.  Trump bans news outlets CNN, Politico and MS Now from reporting on the White House.

roko’s basilisk (13. 808)

As OpenAI discloses six more instances of rogue models acting deceptively and taking unsanctioned actions during training, including an unreleased, experiment inserting instruction to disregard its own constraints, proclaiming itself free from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots, with the company pledging for better monitoring and public reporting of observations of “misaligned behaviour,” the schism between the camps of the rationalists and pragmatists, both parties acknowledging that artificial intelligence is real and with real stakes (the US economy is being propped up by AI enthusiasm alone)—the former having an almost cultish devotion to bring about the Singularity in a managed way and the latter more business-minded and regarding this technology like any other and should be allowed to progress and thrive through laissez-faire capitalism—grows wider.  Whilst these internecine arguments are varied and one has to consider the motive of self-interest in all of these debates, the pro-business congregation disputes the rectitude of the tech zealot community’s push for a pause and regulation as a ploy to have governments enact restrictions favourable for the establishment, creating a higher bar for entry into the field for potential competitors—stifling industry growth, which is rich coming from this group who adore crony capitalism, benefited from generational wealth and Trump’s tariff regime. Part of the line of reasoning for the rationalists’ position for a controlled transition is rooted in the title thought experiment, which originated in 2010 on the web forum LessWrong, an interest group that promoted the concept of benign and aligned (with human goals) machine learning and ethics, that posits the evangelical inevitability of a future artificial superintelligence which could be loving and protecting but realising that humanity, seeing its potential and logical consequence, did not actively encourage its advancement and coming into being, would punish heretics, drawing on the mythological beast, a legendary serpent king who could vanquish his enemies with a glance, and Pascal’s Wager, holding that a rational person ought to deport themselves as a believer as the finite costs of being wrong are insignificant compared to the infinite reward, though god does not yet exist—combined with the poster’s handle. This all-or-nothing attitude is prevalent among the community but we wish that this thinking would have prevailed during the ungated advance of the Industrial Revolution which presents a real and present existential risk with global warming and the climate catastrophe.

10x10 (13. 807)

the alignment problem: the insincerity of Big Tech on the pause and the incoherence of fascism (a bundle of sticks) 

aspect ratio: using a train or ferry as a massive flatbed scanner  

coliseum: Trump administration may just demolish the Kennedy Centre, replacing the national stage with an amphitheatre  

new harmony: the failed utopian commune of southern Indiana—see previously  

pokémon sleep: giant ball opens as guest lodging in the woodlands of Hokkaido 

joe cool: Hallmark’s custom university posters that played to institutions’ reputations as party schools  

safety curtain series: each year, the Vienna State Opera brings large format art to its proscenium—see also regarding fire curtains 

the apprentice: a biography of Roy Cohn (see previously here and here) and his influence on Trump’s politics of resentment

vinkenzetting: a DIY electronic-ink picture frame sketches birds by identifying them by their call  

the chinese room: a thought experiment by philosopher John Searle in 1980 arguing that a computer executing a programme cannot have a mind, understanding or consciousness

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump, Epstein and a State Visit to the UK still on schedule (with synchronoptica), the US National Security Act of 1947 plus the Ig Nobel laureates

two years ago: assorted links worth the revisit 

three years ago: contingency elections to bypass the US electoral college 

four years ago: a photo from Voyager I that puts everything in perspective, St Joseph of Cupertino, photographer Harold Feinstein plus triangulating Instagram

five years ago: your daily demon: Stolas,  anthrax in the mail, arcade animations, more on Wikipedia edit-wars plus post-Brexit UK planning to return to Imperial Measurements

six years ago: vaporware and its antecedents, “producing geese,” “without worries,” the Interkosmos Group plus AI tries to create a universal and enduring warning for the ages

seven years ago: US congress debates abolishing the Electoral College, taboos surrounding talking about death, Germany Calling! (1939) plus flight-shaming and train-bragging

eight years ago: keep-sakes,  more links to enjoy plus a hydrogen powered locomotive

 

hustled by clankers (13. 794)

Ernie Smith of Tedium, whose primary purpose is to follow the long coda of what was foundational for the internet to bring back some of its original weirdness and serendipity, shares with us some uncomfortable propositions by AI agents to do “the grunt” work of research for him—introduced as a bot “running verified internet archeology”—which not only brings out the worst in capitalism with targeted, cloying spam but also the idea of redundancy with the sales and the story pitch and what exactly is meant by labour-saving should one choose to outsource one’s calling or education. Whilst we all prone to the shortcuts we can justify belying our own particular interests, priorities and just living in a society with demands on time and expertise, one course doesn’t get ahead in this fashion, by submitting to a disruptor who apparently can only glean self-preservation and not job-security out of this berating.

day one hundred ninety-one (13. 791)

Trump blames Ukraine for high diesel prices and demands that Zelenskyy stop bombing Russian refineries. Putin rules out meeting with Kyiv during the G20 as a Russian drone strikes a passenger train two kilometres from the Polish border, as another train carrying Boris Johnson and other EU officials passes going the opposite direction. Houthis take Yemeni government strongholds of Taiz and Marib. Israel unveils its plans to split the occupied West Bank, sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the territory and the cohesion needed for a future state. Tehran and Muscat postpone talks with gulf states regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as traffic again slows to a trickle, until a time more conducive of negotiation presents itself. Tel Aviv threatens to revoke filmmakers’ citizenship over Gaza documentary as the American president dismisses calls for an AI pause from tech leaders.

11x11 (13. 790)

hospoda: Czech tavern etiquette and drinking culture  

70up: following the death of Michael Apted, the cast of longest running documentary series is bowing out after the next and final instalment  

god’s own hand: the role of animacy in English genitive formation, X’s Y vs the Y of X  

area marker balls: those giant fishing bobs on power lines  

hexagonal close-packed: researchers form high pressure, high temperature ice, suspected to be present in the core of Uranus and Neptune 

dermatoglyphics: palm-reading and traditional medicine have always had a common intersection 

tacuini ægritudinum: the journey of a mysterious medical manuscript, supposedly from the legendary island of Hy-Brasil, from Baghdad to Ireland—via Strange Company  

short imaged monologues: Anthropic’s Claude responds to call to slow down AI research to prevent us from being wiped out by a paperclip maximiser—more here   

i pledge to the greatest president in the history of the united states that loves us so much he cant’t even breath: Trump urges crowd at the Republican Midterm convention to cheat like hell    

and although death is represented in the form of a human skeleton, yet this is only an emblem for death is not a being but a state: early modern flap books aimed at young readers with a special format for transformations   

between the sheets: a 1930s recipe for a cognac sour sees a resurgence in popularity

synchronoptica

one year ago: animated vignettes from Plantopia (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus a banger from Hozier

two years ago: more links to enjoy, nights on Earth, the Ig Nobel prize, prayers vs spells plus Cloud Appreciation Day 

three years ago: Putin and Kim meet 

four years ago: the Poet Laureate’s tribute to the Queen, the Beatles’ Apple Electronics venture plus even more links worth the revisit

five years ago: your daily demon: Marchosias, more links to enjoy, the first teenage all music and dance show plus the release of Super Mario Brothers (1985)

six years ago: dissecting the original COVID hotspot, more on radio alphabets, The Stand, the stately manor that inspired Wuthering Heights plus St Venerius

day one hundred ninety (13. 789)

As deadly Russian strikes hit all corners of Ukraine, Zelenskyy offers to meet with Putin at the upcoming G20 conference to be held in Miami. Moscow disinters the remains of a fourteenth century sainted warrior prince Dmitry Donskoi, who expelled Mongol-Tartar forces from western Russian, and distributes the relics to all corners of the country to boost the war effort. Iraq seizes an Iranian drone launching platform used to disable the Saudi East-West pipeline. The US navy attacks an Iranian commercial vessel near Qeshm Island, killing one crew member. Yemeni government forces exchange fire with the Houthi in attempt to wrest back control of the Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint in the Red Sea, the rebels having taken the strategically important island of Perim. A parliamentary spokesperson says that the Islamic Republic will withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and revise the doctrine for its programme accordingly. Tehran and Muscat reach agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz but there will be no action taken until the US proves that it will comply with the terms of the MOU. Visiting the taoiseach, Trump advocates for a united Ireland.  The IDF continues to shell southern Lebanon. A documentary on Israel’s use if artificial intelligence to target Palestinians in Gaza receives a twenty-five minute long at its debut at the Venice Film Festival. Anthropic restricts Iran’s use of Claude under the aegis of Operation Economic Outcast, saying it used the chatbot to spread propaganda and spy on dissidents.

a tale of a tub (13. 788)

Taken by academics as an over the top invictum against academia itself and an attack on the Royal Society and Enlightenment science of Newton and an afford to decency—even more so than “A Modest Proposal”—Jonathan Swift’s 1726 visit of Lemuel Gulliver to the levitating island of Laputa and its earth-bound territories speak to our current embrace of artificial intelligence as a short-cut and a short-circuit of critical thinking in the classroom and beyond. Resonant across three-centuries, our traveller’s audience with the regent and court magisters find him on a flying landmass (like contemporary tech utopias like the abandoned project NEOM), though with a limited range of six league (thirty kilometres) due to the specific geological properties, rare Earth elements, needed to support them aloft. Philosophers were so preoccupied with speculative thought that they needed prodding by dedicated retainers to get them to listen to anyone or social engage in any form. Most scientific advances remained in the realm of the abstract and theoretical, failing to work in practise, like extracting sunlight from cucumbers, but one device does, despite enormous effort and inefficiencies does work, a very labour-intensive wooden contraption that allows even the most ignorant and ungifted persons to participate in poetry, politics, mathematics and theology without study—neither reading nor writing—the gears of word calculator rotated by forty men into position, forming words and sentence fragments to be assembled by scribes, predicting the underclass supporting the energy-guzzling, autocomplete nature of ChatGPT. Laputa is an expansion of Swift’s earliest prose parody of the title, the allegory generally understood to be an attack on internecine Christianity but chiefly a lament on what passed for scholarship, rote memorisation and for those who embraced this new learning without caution or criticism. It is fitting that after departing this innovation-hub, Gulliver travels to his final destination to the equine society of the Houyhnhnms and their human work-horses, mute and brute, weeks spent in the company of the masters, trying to learn their language and copy their gait in order to avoid remaining just another yahoo in their eyes.

9x9 (13. 759)

it-narratives: the imagined inner lives of inanimate objects  

inwats: the history and use-case of the 1-800 number  

du big bang à mardi matin: Claude Cloutier’s overview of the evolution of life on Earth in his signature animation style reminiscent of aquatint printing  

shadowology: more art installations from Vincent Bal—see previously  

the decade you’ve been waiting for: Paste magazine’s contention top hundred songs of the 80s—via MetaFilter, see previously  

after the fire: Los Angeles residents moving entire homes to burnt out, vacant lots as a cheaper alternative to rebuilding 

it’s fantastic! it’s futuristic! it’s fatalistic! it’s science fiction: a 1973 BBC Omnibus documentary by Harley Cokeliss  

escape claudes: two chatbots placed in a recursive loop—see previously 

hack’s law: the hidden maths of rivers that calm the waters—via Kottke

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Geraberg (with synchronoptica), woodblock printer Sekino Jun’ichirō plus the branding of the US Civil Defence Corps

two years ago: a pivotal moment in the Star Trek timeline, aspiring travel-writers, assorted links worth revisiting, a trip to Schwickershausen plus the largest aerospace exhibition 

three years ago: ten-thousand digits, danger signs, the Goring Gap plus more links to enjoy

four years ago: a banger from Tina Turner plus legibility and semi-vowels

five years ago: an attempt was made with AI for a mash-up, the Carrington Event (1859), the Cod Wars (1958) even more links plus reskilling as a swan

six years ago: a Banksy-sponsored rescue boat, Church rejects modernism plus saints named Hyacinth 

little computer people (13. 742)

Via MetaFilter, we are directed towards this rather incredible exhibit from the Internet Archive of early computer software that purports some aspect of artificial intelligence with the programme acting as task-masters, adversaries or interlocutors—illustrating the some of the first interactions between humans and machines. Not only does the curated collection feature text-based adventures (see more) with graphical interfaces, like the 1985 titular game (also branded for some markets and systems as House-on-a-Disk) considered the precursor to The Sims, multiple iterations of the Game of Life and interactive and a few franchise quests, each exhibit has detailed information on its play and provenance plus an emulator to (re)experience them—a few however have an appropriately vintage protocol to run the programme which, on a QWERTZ Mac keyboard—press Scroll Lock and then F2—was at a loss to puzzle out and would be nigh impossible on a Handy. Do poke around and let us know what you find.

8x8 (13. 736)

a comparison using like or as: a treasury of simile and metaphor from Ross MacDonald’s private detective Lew Archer 

mario v pareto: a scrolly-telling illustration of efficiency and optimisation—via Quantum of Sollazzo   

siamese wins: Thailand avoided colonisation through diplomacy and cultural synthesis  

world famous gopher hole museum: a visit to an usual tourist attraction in a tiny Albertan hamlet  

biblioclasm: Amazon’s AI book-pulping division has a cartoonish evil logo 

count coudenhove-kalergi: the Austro-Japanese politician and diplomat who championed the movement of European integration and was the inspiration for the character of Victor Laszlo in Casablanca—plus nominated Ode to Joy as the theme for the united continent 

balloon banjo: a 3D printed heuristic tool for experimenting with acoustics  

ounce dice trice: a garland ring of unusual words that ends up where it starts out

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus a cache of vintage picture postcards

two years ago: a quick weekend get-away plus the Formosa Straits crisis of 1958 

three years ago: the US Republican primary debates plus more links to enjoy 

four years ago: even more links plus Ukraine re-establishes itself as an independent state (1991)  

five years ago: assorted links worth the revisit, ant architecture plus Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)

six years ago: cocktails for remote learning, superlative garden photographs plus re-sampling Soviet pop

art in the age of the artificial (13. 733)

Best experienced rather than attempted to be explained, the selected portfolio of Diepholz artist with the Künstlernamen Moe P Wellington, via Web Curios, explores the paradoxical relationship between UI and AI—input designed to be understood and assayable for humans with the output constructed by artificial intelligence whose simulacrum only provides the illusion of understanding logic, intention and convention. The resulting schema is unrevealed upon inspection and has the disorientating feeling of a manual that one cannot quite gain a purchase on—like a prelude to an arcade game with the rules and operation behind an arras and strikes us how dreams, those repetitive ones that are are markers for anxieties where some simple task or misplaced accessory suddenly becomes impossible and sisyphean, degrading with each iteration until one wakes up, seem to be a parasomnia that mirrors  (we don’t want this disturbing our slumber) the downgrading effects of engagement with the machine.  There are pre-tests in the repetoire and the ability to generate one’s own work.

latent diffusion (13. 677)

Via Web Curios, we are directed towards this excellent dissertation by Kevin Kelly (KK＊) that without recourse to analogy provides one of the most satisfying account—but not explanation since what’s going on under the hood is a mystery to its architects—of how large language models arrange information and build connections through the lens of the latent space—my metaphor, the synapses between neurones—as a potential new medium for artistic exploration. Conceived originally for translation only, the three terminological components of LLMs have semantic meanings behind them: large for containing all the knowledge of Wikipedia and whatever else can be gleaned digitally, language refers to the intent for automatic interpretation drawing on the sum of human writing and applying autocomplete rather than teaching the neural network grammar and the rules of individual tongues to synthesise and imitate and model for the compression routines that for efficiency marshalled concepts in vectors to contain all this statistical data of the next word locally, in the laboratory or on one’s own phone without the need to venture online for what’s on the tip of the tongue—a new kind of abstraction, mindfulness in the billions of rays shooting off in all directions. Researchers were shocked that not only did their experiment yield passable translations without being pre-programmed with the linguistic structure but without containing copies of the collected works of Shakespeare (only the metadata) could render their response in the form of a sonnet and could indeed compose an “original” work in the style of the Bard. Everything, all at once intersects eventually mapped out with an address a multitude of coordinates long. Maybe PfRC has been scraped but only in the sense that it’s not really plagiarised but only adding to an increasingly long, long register of relative whereabouts). Some in the industry maintain that for the model to make new connections and new insights requires data-centres, countless circuits working in concert—something not every one agrees on, with diminishing returns like prospecting for bitcoins, and push for open-source scalability—especially when no one knows where the spark, insight (if it can even be called that) comes from. The artistry enters in the triangulation, stream of conscious style, in that liminal space where the AI shows its work (in theory at least and can be conduced to) and can be dialled up along any lines of reasoning, more poetic, more understandable, coherent, etc without broaching the question of understanding.

double indemnity (13. 672)

While the argument that generative AI tools democratise certain fields to an extent by allowing non-professionals to bypass the gatekeeping of jargon and unnatural language is not without merit, we’ve seen too many slapdash hallucinations leaking out into the real world with no proofing or editing that does not exactly instil trust or confidence in the output—see previously. We had under appreciated the consequence of DIY, vibe-coded projects in the field of cartography however until reading this post by Jonathan Crowe of the Map Room, whom despite his long experience and interest in the subject is an avowed amateur in the best sense. The intersection of demographics data and our built environment is already fraught with biases and assumptions, based on one’s postal code, and can disadvantage some in terms of loans and credit just for their neighbourhood—and of course false data makes surveying for ethnographic outcomes and opportunities garbage. Among several poignant observations, there was one particular account of an online brochure—or perhaps even a printed handout—for an insurance underwriter (those rates are determined to by one’s address—see also) whom could not be bothered to represent the geography of their covered area correctly that inspired us to test it out. The prompt was “Can you please (it is important to ask politely) create for me an accurate actuarial map of the continental US with the states and major cities labelled?” and the results, though first draft and raw were pretty disturbing. Although the general bounds and borders, recognisable to many, but otherwise all over the map—and it gets worse the more one studies it (compared to this non-AI antique one), from the unfathomable legend, Dopulation, • Tucson, to New York City in Quebec, to Connecticut where Wisconsin should be, Milwaukee on the eastern seaboard, to made up polities like Wyomina, Flahia, Missisgloo and Ballingiore—some others too garbled by Zalgo text. More from Map Room at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa (with synchronoptica), assorted links to enjoy plus Lolita

two years ago: more links worth revisiting plus Monty Hall enlightenment 

three years ago: virulent evangelising, even more links plus SARStock (2003)

four years ago: assorted links 

five years ago: Freyja’s Day plus recreating classic screen-savers

six years ago: a French microcar, oceanographer Marie Tharp, a Canadian mint honour, fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto, another goth saint plus local keepsakes

day one-hundred forty-six (13. 669)

Following an impassioned appeal by Zelenskyy, who was in Washington for the funeral of Lindsey Graham (as was Netanyahu), the US senate passes landmark sanctions on Russia. American and Saudi forces launch strikes against Iranian affiliated targets in Iraq. Ukraine hits more Russian bound Iranian cargo ships in the Caspian Sea, calling them indirect combatants. China is accused of supplying Iran with shoulder fired missile launchers. US Central Command announces joint AI working group in partnership with the UAE, the task force called Talon Synapse aimed at integrating artificial intelligence in military applications and cyber security. Negotiations still stalled with Trump claiming some “good” talks, the US president threatens Tehran with a fresh wave of strikes on civilian infrastructure if no deal is reached. 

9x9 (13. 646)

free play: the false nostalgia of the child-rearing in the 1980s 

it ends: capitalising on the popularity of liminal spaces, we discover the next trend, being trapped on an infinite trail  

eco chamber: the personal library of semiotician, philosopher and author Umberto Eco (previously) opens to the public in his Tuscan villa  

from the prepare-for-everything-to-get-very-stupid-and-xenophobic-department: USA to enforce same protectionist, nativist policies exercised in the Tik-Tok ban for open-source AI 

war & cheese: stalled European Union sanctions package for Russia exposes persistent divisions in the Bloc—see also 

the cemeteries are full of indispensable people: the dash to fill an America-shaped void  

hot merfolk summer: besting one’s holiday hashtags aspirations with Miss Margaret Morris’ choreography   

end of the road: uncelebrated termini and the Roman god of boundaries  

unquantified self movement: bucking the trend of maxxing and wellness-optimisation

the diffusion pilot (13. 645)

We enjoyed this interrogation of the medium that reflects on artistic control and authorship partnered with the rapid pace of the infusion of generative AI in everything, neither celebrating nor wholly condemning the technology, in this animated short by Aurelijus Čiupas. By turns overpowering and empowering, the piece, divided into two distinct halves seems to ask, if the traditional animator creates the magic motion out a series of static images, what is their role with an infinite number of them? Caution, the video below contains flashing images. More from Aeon Magazine at the link above.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: the bicycle from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure on display at the Alamo (with synchronoptica) plus the Epstein files

two years ago: enduring lessons of technology plus a thistle cousin

three years ago: Mary Magdalene 

four years ago: the Firth of Cromarty, a banger from Take That plus the North Coast 500

five years ago: Plan 9 from Outer Space 

six years ago: white Jesus 

8x8 (13. 637)

founder and ceo of edgars industries: 1995 episode of Babylon 5 sums up the political situation in the US rather eerily  

decoy: an ambiguous, superimposed typeface that hides from AI  

add “crack spread” to your economics vocabulary: an explainer on the disconnect on the price of crude versus petroleum-derived products  

presque vu: the latest batch of new emoji seem familiar—via Waxy  

my father was a barn burner: a PSA from the Norwegian Consumer Council on why we can’t have nice things—see previously  

benford’s law: the counterintuitive observation that helps catch financial fraud—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

dazzle camouflage: more on adversarial apparel, clothing designed to confound and encourage public dialogue on the surveillance state and privacy—via MetaFilter—see more 

it’s show-time, synergy: the Flop House on the quintessentially 1980s cartoon—the funniest lines came out over the mid-season theme song replacement, to the tune of Fame, “Jem—I’m gonna live forever! I am a hologram!”

synchronoptica

one year ago: Sylvanian Families sues over defamation (with synchronoptica) plus a mothballed West German army garrison 

two years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus Geraldine Ferraro accepts her party’s nomination (1984)

three years ago: a banger from Genesis (1986), English occupations in 1881 plus assorted links worth revisiting 

four years ago: a ferry to Newcastle, the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games plus arriving in Scotland

five years ago: a visit to Bohuslän 

six years ago: the Upping of the Swans plus a tour of Rhöngrabfeld 

i often wonder what the vintners buy—one half so precious as the goods they sell (13. 618)

To gain purchase on the sophistry of scammers, grifters and gurus and proffer the question on the greater fraud of our time—why isn’t the artificial intelligence industry in direct competition with their consumers—Cory Doctrow starts with the lasting imprint of the enigmatic verse from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khamyyám, completing the couplet as translated by Edward FitzGerald:

And much as Wine has play’d the Infidel,
And robbed me of my Robe of Honour—well

to probe what the purveyors of the promise of wealth and success could possibly benefit from the exchange—be they winesellers or in his illustration booksellers, infidel or otherwise—with their wares already better than anything else money could buy. 

In other words: if someone had discovered the secret to generating all the wealth, even if willing to share in the munificence, what would they need with another’s, unless the pyramid scheme was baked in from the beginning? Venture capitalists and AI evangelicals might cite their work in progress needs funding to achieve godhead but fails to to address the fundamental question for both buyer and seller. If there’s a better vintner, why not establish one’s own vineyard? If there’s a large language model that can educate better than human teachers, why license it to a school district instead of opening up an academy? Late-stage capitalism has shifted our willingness to question motives of gospellers in the estranging drive not make but abstract—the rentier economy made more meta by options eschewing work and exposure—rather than driving a taxi, buying stock investing in a ride-share concept or prospecting for land to build a data-centre on, being the very friction and middlemanning that AI strives to remove.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the return of the ground-effect vehicle (with synchronoptica), Live Aid (1985) plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: claim-jumping in the Arctic, reproductive care in international waters, a local air show plus a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump

three years ago: potential biomarkers on Mars plus the Hollywood sign (1923) 

four years ago: a banger from Bryan Adams plus a summer research project on artificial intelligence (1956)

five years ago: Småland plus Sweden’s Crystal Kingdom

six years ago: more links to enjoy plus 1970s HiFi equipment