VOLITION - You should build Communism -- precisely *because* it's impossible.
“The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily."
If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’
“The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily."
404media.co
Good primer on Land, makes me want to read Vincent Le's recent book. Leaves you with the question, how we face down the eschatology of capitalism as AI, and as a great attractor at the end of (human) time?
aeon.co
Spot on... "Working on AI text, as an editor, is like trying to operate on a body whose skin, muscles, veins, bones and organs are all compromised. There's nothing to leave intact, nowhere to begin" ...or no one behind the words
The Biggest Tell That Something Was Written by AI
Look closely and you’ll see that every part of the text is not quite right.
theatlantic.com
Liars are the greatest US(ish) group of the C21st & it was a joy to write about Drum’s Not Dead for its 20th birthday, a record of beauty and violence that explores the mania of the human mind shifting between states of anxiety and creativity. On @thequietus.com: thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
Unbeatable: Drum's Not Dead by Liars, 20 Years On | The Quietus
There were arses everywhere. Male and female arses alike, pale against the green paint of the metal fence that darkened with urine, or sticking out from behind swamped portaloos and food stalls, pissi...
thequietus.com
"I'm not in denial, I'm in open rebellion" damn that quote goes hard
Garry@thegmcconnachie.bsky.social · 9mo ago“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.” Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Trypanohyncha ocellus & the Xenomorph are the Pinky & the Brain we deserve
Not really a surprise that machine learning (not AI) is having problems when faced with complexity www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Cutting-edge AI models ‘collapse’ in face of complex problems, Apple study finds
‘Pretty devastating’ paper raises doubts about race to reach stage of AI at which systems match human intelligence
theguardian.com
Randomly decided to watch Star Wars in Japanese. Seemed appropriate given how much of an influence Kurosawa was on the films. Did not disappoint.
Going to start calling it ‘Assisted Intelligence’
Owen Hatherley on the Manic Street Preachers: ‘With any teenage obsession, you can usually date the exact moment the spell is broken…’ newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Owen Hatherley, Mislaid Plans — Sidecar
On the Manic Street Preachers.
newleftreview.org
"humans are by nature political animals, whose freedom can only be realized and maintained through collective self-determination—or what we call democracy. Communism is the aspiration to take this democratic ideal as seriously as possible and is, as such, a vision of freedom" @sorenmau.bsky.social
Communism is Freedom
Ideas about a future society won't in themselves bring us to a better future, but ideas can function as points of orientation for collective struggle. What should the communism we fight for look like?
versobooks.com
“Modernism came before the Atom bomb; Brutalism came after, inspiring monuments with the will to endure of a nuclear fallout shelter.” #whitneymallet open.substack.com/pub/whitneym...
The Brutalist
Zionism and Dream Homes
open.substack.com
Ahead of the Oscars and in general awards hype season is worth revisiting this from @helmetgirl.bsky.social on Anora by Sean Baker lareviewofbooks.org/article/unde...
Under the Table | Los Angeles Review of Books
Sam Bodrojan considers “Anora” and the emasculated sadism of Sean Baker.
lareviewofbooks.org
ubuweb remains one of the great inspirations in my life and work. their curatorial return is such great news. the work of trustworthy knowledge sharing takes many forms and we can’t be afraid when the method must change. to make cultural touchstones visible is to change cultural imagination.
Great conversation between @paglen.studio and @joshuacitarella.bsky.social Paglen defining psyops capitalism: “I’m going to manipulate your mind and extract value from you”
Doomscroll: Trevor Paglen
Welcome to Doomscroll. I’m excited to announce episode #05 with guest Trevor Paglen. This program has had an amazing response so far. I’m glad we are able to bring these conversations to a new and wid...
open.substack.com
Benjamin Noys: “Can we think any other moment than the present moment? ... If we can only think the present moment, that moment is now a prison. We live in a perpetual present that constantly mutates but never changes.”
On Fredric Jameson’s Inventions of a Present - Notes - e-flux
Benjamin Noys reviews Fredric Jameson’s new essay collection, Inventions of a Present.
e-flux.com
“…when we consider the degree to which the technology of writing contributed to our linear understanding of time, why wouldn’t this age of neural media enable us to experience time differently? Why wouldn’t it enable us to experience a new level of “the real”? Perhaps it already has.”
Hallucinating sense in the era of infinity-content
This essay for Document’s Spring/Summer 2024 issue traverses arthouse cinema, Shein, and streaming to explore how the ‘technical image’ is changing the nature of meaning-making
documentjournal.com
“What if a generation of writers grew up with nobody to criticize them?” And, re the birth of the book review: “‘A crowd of literary men found employment in writing about books rather than in writing them… and the literature of Criticism became a power.’ This power was instantly corrupting.”
Like This or Die, by Christian Lorentzen
The fate of the book review in the age of the algorithm
harpers.org
'We are living through the nightmare edition of "Great Men Make History."' Mike Davis's final published essay: newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Mike Davis, Thanatos Triumphant — Sidecar
Does hegemony require a grand design?
newleftreview.org