vol. 5 AOS 11
Greetings,
This week is one for the annals of simulacra, were there such a thing. I don’t know. Maybe there is. Maybe there isn’t. If I imagined it, it exists. Right…?
As such, across the Ensouled Universe and docu-mental, there was talk of what a world with AI might bring, is bringing, has already brought.
But as I was out in nature early this morning, watching real birds, walking on real dirt paths, listening — authentically alarmed — to a real band of coyotes hunt down some critter for breakfast, I thought about all the existing weirdness in the world beyond the Real One posed by nature. I figured we’ve survived it so far, and considered AI might just force us to actually get real.
There are the Kardashians and their ersatz asses. There is Paris Hilton. There are role player games with avatars. There are simulated voices on every single toll free number you will ever dial again, and they will sort you out whether or not you want to talk to them. There are AI astrologers. There is, or was, Max Headroom.
I mean, you didn’t see all this coming?
Maybe not. Especially if you let Rupert Murdoch or Anderson Cooper or Ben Shapiro or MTG think for you. We allow that to be called “being informed” in a “representational democracy”, but it’s just outsourcing our citizenship to bots.
It’s all become so iterative, it’s just a pack of strange-os masquerading as actual leaders with our actual best interests at heart.
But AI — does it have a heart? Does it have a soul?
I considered as I listened to the eerie wave of high pitched barks, that AI could force us not only to ask what it means to be human, but find the answer.
Meanwhile, there are members of Congress who resemble ground troops from a hostile, utterly un-human world channeled to Earth by HP Lovecraft. Talk about AI. My theory is they are indeed human simulations. Not especially good ones, either. The Terminator was a better design. Less tentacles.
AI is indeed creepy. But it’s been creepy down here on Earth for a really long time.
Will it get even creepier? Probably. Authoritarian? Duh. If Emperor Zuck already owns our data, then the Constitution is null and void anyway. How can we be both free and owned? We’ve been farmed, harvested, and content creators since Day One of the Big Tech Era. We are both the product and the consumer, which makes us virtual slaves.
Speaking of which, a reader and commentor on one of this week’s posts had this to say about AI generally, and our mondo bizzaro Congress and their Constitutional duties under the light of a coming 20-year transit of Pluto through an AI-sensitive part of the Cosmos particularly:
“I personally think that the policy or governmental aspect of this transit will entail a complete re-ording of our Constitution, for better or worse. There are things that are just WRONG and not working 250 years after it was written. The US Senate is not working right in terms of representation of the majority...same with the Electoral College, etc. This reform is coming...But I think you are spot on about AI forcing us to go outside of our self imposed boundaries as to how we see ourselves and others. I mean the end game could very well be that our government becomes some sort of algorithm or AI institution. We input data as the electorate and the algos implement. No muss, no fuss.”
Isn’t that brilliant?
Except, who will create the algorithms?
One thing I know for sure. Identity politics is toast, because what is identity anyway? If every story is true, then no story is special. Might that force democracy to flourish?When out of many you get one, as our original national motto once declared, then no one part of the machinery is any more or less important than any other: every part is essential for things to work.
And if no story is special, then you have to be present in the moment. Right here, right now, look me in the eye.
Which is the only way to be real.
Peace,
Whitney
So far, my only experience of AI is Alexa and some image generation sites, which weren't that impressive. AI will just feed us all the same crap we've always had, monetised of course, by its already-rich owners, the only difference being we can use voice commands instead of typing. I wonder if scientists and innovators are ever disappointed with the uses their discoveries and creations are put to? Controlling the masses, enriching the elite, and violence, basically.