[NetBehaviour] Moar AI

Thu Apr 3 20:56:50 CEST 2025

Hi Marc,

I agree with you here; I may have posted an answer already to you - the 
long covid STILL drives me crazy. But not 'dumbasses' which is the problem
- these people are incredibly smart, as smart as we are to be sure.

Don't know if I mentioned this but with long covid etc. I usually have 
tennis on in the background. No one seems to get hurt.

Furtherfield should NEVER disappear. It's one of the best things online.

Best, Alan

On Wed, 2 Apr 2025, marc.garrett via NetBehaviour wrote:

> Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2025 09:11:47 +0000
> From: marc.garrett via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>
> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
>     <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>
> Cc: marc.garrett <marc.garrett at protonmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Moar AI
> 
> Hi Alan,
> What you're saying highlights an immense amount of waste driven by
> uncaring forms of imperialist-driven capitalism. And yes, we all
> know the self-appointed, pretentious "gods of the future" not only
> intend to keep polluting the Earth for their own gains ? they're
> already polluting space as we speak. So, living with trouble and
> swilling in their shit will be the future chosen for everyone by
> the overlords. 
> 
> However, as I'm sure you agree, we need to continue exploring old
> and new ways and hybrid notions and ventures to be who we are both
> independently and together.
> 
> We have all been living in territories dominated by dumbasses and
> their hegemonic needs for a long time now and have grown
> accustomed (grudgingly) to adapt in some way even though it is
> bleak and despairing to have to change in accordance their whims
> all of the time.
> 
> Furtherfield's not disappearing for a while, we're 'stubborn and
> pigheaded and cute' enough to know what's valuable and tangible.
> While others pay lip service and bow to the (pretend) gods of
> top-down tedium, we'll always be confusing them and annoying them
> and their accepted forms of structural nihilism.
> 
> We need to remind ourselves that not everyone is a zombie; we're
> the solution. 
> 
> Wishing you well
> Marc
> 
> ++++++++++
> 
> 
> On Tuesday, 1 April 2025 at 15:34, Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour
> <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:
>       Just to add a note - rust. I'm from the anthracite
>       region of Pennsylvania, and have watched the
>       deterioration of mines, communities, environments,
>       etc. over decades.
> Things rust, fall apart; the streets in my neighborhood
> collapse at times as a result of the underground structures
> giving away. That's another model, not objects and
> processes, but runoffs and piles (some of which have been
> burning for over a century). So a geological model, not
> artworks but sludge, not networks but breaking points, no
> matter what the networks are. There are ruins everywhere and
> the amount for example of toxic electronic debris in the
> U.S. is enormous -
> 
> On Tue, Apr 1, 2025 at 6:29?AM marc.garrett via NetBehaviour
> <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:
> Hi Rhea,
> I enjoyed reading 'Complaint in the Age of its
> Operationalization. '
> 
> I am encouraged that you find much of anything related
> to Musk cringeworthy.
> 
> "They are cringe because everything Musk does is
> cringe. They are yet another product of a needy,
> try-hard, middle-aged man-child nerd?s desperation for
> love and attention, to be one of the popular kids,
> even and especially as a de facto dictator. If the gap
> between power and the expression of desire defines
> cringe, Musk is the
> Black-Scholes-being-hit-by-negative-prices of cringe."
> 
> The man-child's power to demolish anything he fancies
> is a harsh reminder that people and communities online
> are vulnerable when they rely on the master's tools to
> build shared values on platforms built by
> corporations. It's a warning that if we rely too
> heavily on these corporate platforms and tools, we
> risk cultural erosion and the loss of years of
> hard-earned, mutually beneficial relationships with
> others.
> 
> "When considering the problem of fakes in art, Goodman
> uses examples of forged paintings being revealed in
> order to argue that we cannot know which features of
> an artwork will affect its authenticity in the future.
> These aren?t a matter of chemical or radiological
> analysis of images, although these developments have
> certainly revealed an increasing number of fakes in
> recent years. Rather it is a matter of looking at the
> artwork and considering it in a different light."
> 
> Social media platforms have been flooded with the
> AI-generated trend dubbed the ?Ghiblification? "with
> people transforming personal photos, memes and even
> historical images into visuals reminiscent of Studio
> Ghibli?s art style. Users also generated and shared
> other iconic visual aesthetics ? from Disney, Pixar,
> Lego, The Simpsons, and Dr. Seuss, as well as vintage
> styles such as those of Rankin/Bass (Rudolph the
> Red-Nosed Reindeer) [...]. The real danger of current
> AI trends lies not just in fakes, ethics or automation
> but in the silent heat rising from countless
> overworked servers. As AI use skyrockets, so does its
> environmental impact, and that's a growing concern we
> can no longer afford to ignore.
> 
> "We are not entitled to live off the epistemic passive
> income from our investment in a romantic understanding
> of human uniqueness."
> 
> Completely agree. Deals with the nature of our
> knowledge in its own right is 'probably' as akin as
> anything in its own right, art, technology, sex, war,
> food, etc. Everything is attached to a set of other
> elements, never in the singular. That purity died
> along with the romanticism of genius propped up by
> deluded visions of post-modernity and colonial
> defaults. However, these romanticisms still exist in
> our everyday lives and networked forms, rebuilding
> from the top down and reproducing the backward,
> masculine defaults and structures promoted, funded,
> and maintained through technological protocols and
> their underlying elite systems.
> 
> "It is a failure of critical imagination to simply
> object to a product?s fulfilment of the limited terms
> chosen for its initial promotion. It is like a cat
> chasing a red dot on the floor and feeling pleased
> with themself when they catch it. While screaming at
> anyone who points out that the dot is coming from
> somewhere and that lasers have other more interesting
> uses."
> 
> My position is not as a puritan or an absolutist. I
> know that if we?re going to be using networked
> technology these days, AI will be involved in some
> way. However, I see AI's massive shift in our culture
> worldwide as a political form of digital colonialism.
> Still, it would be disingenuous to ignore that
> technology has always been used to exploit others,
> simultaneously bringing positive benefits. My job here
> is to identify the positives, negatives, and grey
> areas of this accelerating, ubiquitous medium, which
> many people use daily in various life activities.
> 
> My guide or critical palette for assessing and
> navigating through all this is an assemblage of chosen
> methodologies that help me understand where the works
> I?m examining sit within a broader cultural context. For
> example, I view these artworks from a permacultural,
> political, ethical, class, and intersectional
> perspective. Alongside these key elements, I bring
> years of working with art, technology, and social
> change to the table.
> 
> My focus is: What are these artworks doing, and are
> they doing what they claim to do? And if they are
> doing what they say, what does this mean, and is this
> enough? What would the work look like if the artists
> took their propositions and intentions towards a more
> critical awareness, openness and ethical standing?
> This isn?t to suggest that by critiquing this work, my
> peers, allies, and I hold all the answers. At what
> cost are these artworks made? By examining the
> function, aesthetics, technology, motives, and
> narratives (abstract, conceptual, or not) of these
> artworks more deeply, we can better understand where
> the artists stand creatively, ecologically,
> politically, and culturally. This will help me reflect
> on my and others' relationship with art and AI and
> what that relationship truly means.
> 
> Wishing you well.
> 
> Marc
> On Friday, 28 March 2025 at 03:52, Rhea Myers via
> NetBehaviour <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>
> wrote:
>       Slop, ghibliization, and the cringe of the
>       Musk administration -
> 
> 
> https://rhea.art/2025/03/27/complaint-in-the-age-of-its-operation
> alization/
> 
> 
> 
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