Listening to David Bowie’s “China Girl” this morning reminded me that I wanted to make a post about prejudice.
I have a pretty simple explanation as to why prejudice is such a trigger/hot topic these days. It wasn’t such an issue not that long ago, right? People at least *somewhat* freely joked about it to some capacity without fear of being outed as a racist/sexist/etc. One good example I can think of is how Family Guy handles it.
The reason there is such extreme backlash today is because, at least in the U.S., when 45 became POTUS he actually *meant* the things he said. He wasn’t joking. It became real, serious. This behavior by the “leader” of such a nation enabled countless others with those same tendencies to open their stupid mouths because they felt he had their back. Then those being spoken against reacted (as they should). The pendulum started swinging back and forth, and that’s where it all got out of control and we lost our minds in a fight to simply justify our own dispositions.
Actually, I’d like to think that with the events of the past 3 years things have settled things down a bit, but the damage had already been done to set progress back significantly. I hope we get back to the point where a joke can be treated as such: a harmless observation made in jest with absolutely no offense intended. As a white American male I can definitely laugh at jokes aimed at my heritage and culture as long as there is no underlying notes of lurking actual hatred. The absence of that hate is what makes all the difference, I believe, whereas we can simply acknowledge the uniqueness of different cultures, ethnicities, sexual orientations, etc. again without fear of being “cancelled”.
For one to think they’re “better” than any other living thing in this universe is simply ignorant. Variety is the spice of life, it’s what makes us individuals, what makes us so special. We need to celebrate our differences.
What if the whole AI narrative is just a cover for a psyops campaign to ensure mass acceptance of systems where people voluntarily conduct seemingly “private” or “confidential” conversations with a computer/service, where the data is stored indefinitely to hold in your digital “file” and be used as an ever-growing databank of leverage with you…just in case “they” need it/could benefit from it?
Art is works of self expression authored by humans. One feels connected to a piece by experiencing it with emotional honesty and vulnerability and genuineness, just as the creators did as they created it. Maybe not the *same* emotions; art is generally interpretative; but in it’s truest form it is honest and vulnerable and genuine none the less.
When software (read: generative AI) outputs “art” it loses that validity. It’s fake. Emulated. Approximated by the application of algorithms.
Generative AI isn’t sentient. It has no capacity to feel emotion, so it’s output is not self expression. It may be based on the templates of countless works ripped off scraped from the Internet, but it’s not art in and of itself.
This thought reminds me of a children’s book on (then early 1980’s) computers I read when I was about 6 years old. The one line I remember from that book was, “Computers do not have feelings.” At least as of right now, I think that statement still holds true. But….change my mind.
Reality is, and always has been, in perfectly balanced chaos.
When things become unbalanced – such as more negative vs. positive energy or vise versa, the other side fights with a vengeance to find that equilibrium. Most times it ends up overshooting and creating an opposing imbalance. I think that’s just the way it works.
Once in a great while, the two energies seem to dance, to sing; they’re in harmony. Rather than oppose each other, they play. Balance. But just for a moment…
All actions produce an equal and opposite reaction. Also, energy doesn’t ever go away, it only changes forms. This is fact.
One of the most sobering things I’ve experienced in life is watching videos I’ve taken of my friends and myself in my late teens / early 20’s (I’m in my early 40’s now).
We originally recorded them all on camcorders (yes kids, with actual tape) over the course of a number of years. Parties, outings, hanging out being bored together…
I’ve watched these videos in total many times. However it’s been years since I have. To see my general disposition and personality then is really fucking embarrassing to watch honestly. I guess I’ve grown up a lot. But back then, we thought we *already were* grown up (I guess in comparison to our earlier lives we were). But shit….we were still just kids, mentally and emotionally.
Maybe it’s the reflective mood I’m in the past few days but something’s drawing me to those videos, to learn and grow some more – to stand at the side of the cliff and see how far I’ve come.
I made this with a text-to-speech program (festival IIRC) in 2007. I put it on my band‘s MySpace page music player in an attempt to rouse listeners’ curiosity. Also I’ve always been a wannabe hacker and thought it was fun to come up with the content. Enjoy ;)
