A heart-pounding clarion call to literary and artistic greatness!
Pico della Mirandola distilled the essence of the Renaissance in his “Oration on the Dignity of Man”.
James Joyce expressed the essence of Modernism when he had Stephen Dedalus declare in the Portrait, “I intend to forge the uncreated consciousness of my race in the smithy of my soul.”
With this bold, rebel essay you’ve swung for the nickel seats and succeeded in proclaiming the artistic and literary vision for our era and its soon-to-be-revealed achievements, however it may be designated one day.
The New Romantic Era?
I have much more to say but I’ll leave it at this, for now.
The greater purpose of art is to ask “what if” to the questions we can not answer. It would not surprise me if AI is a materialist plateau, scaling laws can go log. Especially since while it has a lot of “knowledge” it has no desire. It’s a premium mediocrity, all of the ingredients are there but it lacks taste.
I like your point about voicing out the first draft, it makes sense your writing sounds like you. What app do you use?
I read this and sorry, it does not make sense despite being sympathetic to you. If AI is capable of capturing all of the moments of emotion via simulation, it does seem to solidify materialism: life is not needed, only data.
I wish you are correct, my friend. I speak not as someone against you, but worried and wish to feel reassured in the beauty of writing, of life and the spiritual.
I'm in the dark place you mentioned, save I find no escape from the logic.
Fundamentally, you argue for an essentialism to the human soul - which I also believe. And yet if it can be simulated sufficiently, and you know it is possible with deepfake combinations of image, voice and text/style, it is almost the person itself in some fashion.
It was once argued that poker could not be replicated because of the human element, and yet AI has done so. You say that "it has not captured the human spirit yet" but jailbroken and base models can do surprising things.
I suppose I see that even in hollow replicas like pornography, it has managed to heavily replace the real human elements of sexuality, etc. This seems less hollow than static images and trained on superstimuli of humanity, may bring question that any beauty is just algorithmically manipulable.
Like I said, I want to agree with you. I tend to be much more against AI overall, perhaps because it does seem so profoundly anti-life.
Fundamentally, that's just not my experience of the world. I do not sense a soul in deepfakes. I do not watch computers play poker. I do not watch AI porn.
I read great works of beauty by real people. I believe it's true because I practice it. I do not worry about AI because, thanks to my practice, it is obviously hollow and silly.
You are free to feel how you want to feel about it. And you will continue to feel despair until you realize that you chose it.
Fwiw, I mean the hollow simulcra of pornography as a whole, which I think was well echoed even in the 70s, in a conversation of hyperreality:
"Have you seen the girls in the centerpiece?"
"I see no girls. Only the images of one."
Which I think is in itself speaks to soulless replication long before AI: the image which confuses us for the real being, which nonetheless steals people from living.
I agree that you dont have to and I certainly do not. But you may not be able to avoid it; I am sure that you have already seen the increasing comments by bots and it may be ultimately difficult to distinguish.
I do believe in the human authenticity, or even just in the value of life. But the arguments against it are piling up in a way that I would never feel in 2022.
For my part, this is why I work on #PauseAI and try to fight for humanity. In that sense, we are very much on the same side.
A heart-pounding clarion call to literary and artistic greatness!
Pico della Mirandola distilled the essence of the Renaissance in his “Oration on the Dignity of Man”.
James Joyce expressed the essence of Modernism when he had Stephen Dedalus declare in the Portrait, “I intend to forge the uncreated consciousness of my race in the smithy of my soul.”
With this bold, rebel essay you’ve swung for the nickel seats and succeeded in proclaiming the artistic and literary vision for our era and its soon-to-be-revealed achievements, however it may be designated one day.
The New Romantic Era?
I have much more to say but I’ll leave it at this, for now.
I feel the passion, Chris. This comment reminds me of Will Mannon, actually. That guy gets fired up about literature like nobody else.
Excited to talk more about this on the 21st!
Me too!
The greater purpose of art is to ask “what if” to the questions we can not answer. It would not surprise me if AI is a materialist plateau, scaling laws can go log. Especially since while it has a lot of “knowledge” it has no desire. It’s a premium mediocrity, all of the ingredients are there but it lacks taste.
I like your point about voicing out the first draft, it makes sense your writing sounds like you. What app do you use?
Really agree with that, Randall. Stranger things to come than we can currently imagine.
I use something called Scribe. Seems to work well enough.
Your voice in this piece pierces through the screen and sounds with bell-like clarity. Better all the time. Bravo 👏
I read this and sorry, it does not make sense despite being sympathetic to you. If AI is capable of capturing all of the moments of emotion via simulation, it does seem to solidify materialism: life is not needed, only data.
“Life is not needed, only data.” Sounds like Agent Smith.
I’ll just say: good luck with that
I wish you are correct, my friend. I speak not as someone against you, but worried and wish to feel reassured in the beauty of writing, of life and the spiritual.
I'm in the dark place you mentioned, save I find no escape from the logic.
I’ve been down there, Sean. It’s not fun. But it’s also not the truth.
What exactly are you so afraid of? Why do you not allow yourself to see beauty? Because it’s not “logical?”
Because it does not seem true.
Fundamentally, you argue for an essentialism to the human soul - which I also believe. And yet if it can be simulated sufficiently, and you know it is possible with deepfake combinations of image, voice and text/style, it is almost the person itself in some fashion.
It was once argued that poker could not be replicated because of the human element, and yet AI has done so. You say that "it has not captured the human spirit yet" but jailbroken and base models can do surprising things.
I suppose I see that even in hollow replicas like pornography, it has managed to heavily replace the real human elements of sexuality, etc. This seems less hollow than static images and trained on superstimuli of humanity, may bring question that any beauty is just algorithmically manipulable.
Like I said, I want to agree with you. I tend to be much more against AI overall, perhaps because it does seem so profoundly anti-life.
Fundamentally, that's just not my experience of the world. I do not sense a soul in deepfakes. I do not watch computers play poker. I do not watch AI porn.
I read great works of beauty by real people. I believe it's true because I practice it. I do not worry about AI because, thanks to my practice, it is obviously hollow and silly.
You are free to feel how you want to feel about it. And you will continue to feel despair until you realize that you chose it.
Fwiw, I mean the hollow simulcra of pornography as a whole, which I think was well echoed even in the 70s, in a conversation of hyperreality:
"Have you seen the girls in the centerpiece?"
"I see no girls. Only the images of one."
Which I think is in itself speaks to soulless replication long before AI: the image which confuses us for the real being, which nonetheless steals people from living.
I agree that you dont have to and I certainly do not. But you may not be able to avoid it; I am sure that you have already seen the increasing comments by bots and it may be ultimately difficult to distinguish.
I do believe in the human authenticity, or even just in the value of life. But the arguments against it are piling up in a way that I would never feel in 2022.
For my part, this is why I work on #PauseAI and try to fight for humanity. In that sense, we are very much on the same side.
Thank you for your time.