Thoughts I Think
It’s impossible to keep up. Never mind AI, just the proliferation of straight, human information on this platform alone is so astounding, and it multiplies by the second. It’s like dipping into a trippy buffet of consciousness-raising intelligence and overload every time I go on here. Where to plug in? What can I offer as a benefit to consumers of this noospheric soup? I seem to have the typical “thoughts I think while I sip my coffee” line of Substack musings. But no apologies needed, I say.
That’s me, that’s what I do. I don’t have deep knowledge of a particular hot topic. I’m just a writer using the meager input I get in life — through books, movies, media, and my experience, i.e. the people I love and hate and their example, their thoughts, words, and whatever internal models of reality they carry — to try to fashion a model of reality of my own that is authentic, useful, and fit to serve for others.
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I tell stories that I call novels. But on this platform of long form essays I’m kind of an off-duty policeman doing a shift as a bouncer at a nightclub. I offer my thoughts on things. It’s simple, sometimes compelling when I’m feeling in the groove. But today not so much. I’m just coasting, honestly, while the world spins in an ever widening gyre. Will it all collapse this week? Will the Epstein files get released? Will the Supreme Court offer a definitive judgement which collapses the tariff house of cards? Are Snap benefits on or off? Will Trump send in the National Guard to your city as a distraction? And what we all need to know — will the planes all get cancelled before Thanksgiving?
Sorry, I haven’t got a clue. You won’t read that answer here this week.
There are some good things happening. The people in Gaza are rebuilding their lives in precarious and still deeply tragic conditions. There is movement towards peace in the Holy Land, but also hatred unbound and blood still being spilled. Trump deserves credit for bringing Netanyahu to heel, but their shared past of criminality makes me think it’s a temporary abeyance.
Anyway, further good news. Mamdani in NYC. Gavin Newsom in California. The people have roared back to life on both coasts. The bad news is we still have the great unwashed Maga midlands where only God knows what will bubble up. There are signs of discontent — Marjorie Taylor Green, the Joan of Arc of the Maga Christian nationalist revival, begins to hedge her pro-Trump bets post Gaza and Epstein revelations.
But other GOP politicians and commentarati with a finger on the pulse of their constituents are doubling down on the racism post Mamdani victory. So we don’t know which way this will all go in the longer term, Plus ca change, plus la meme chose, is my hunch.
Another thing on my mind is the onslaught of AI. Is it real or it it all manipulated hype to juice the stock portfolios of the billionaire class at the expense of all what is sacred? I don’t know, but the possible oligarchic end game scares the pants off anyone who is looking up.
(photo credit my daughter Eve in NYC)
Eve, who is looking for a job, is also looking up and around at the same time. That’s how we raised her, thank God. She also notices the proliferation of people on the subway talking into these.
This is a necklace that doubles as a virtual human companion for people who don’t mind losing contact with humanity. It does not bode well, as we evolve into the age of “parasocial.”
Caitklin Johnstone, who is a treasure imho, has this to say about AI and its possible short shelf life.
Generative AI is making everything dumber. It’s crippling people’s ability to write, research, think critically and create art for themselves. It’s making it harder for us to discern truth from falsehood. It’s causing people to become divorced from their own humanity in weirder and weirder ways.
It’s getting harder and harder to know what’s real on the internet. That photo could be fake. That video could be fake. That song could have been made without any actual artist behind it. That essay could have been written by a chatbot. That social media account you’re interacting with could be a chatbot themselves. This is going to have a massively alienating effect on networking technologies whose initial promise was to help bring us all together.
When the internet first showed up people rejoiced at their ability to connect with others around the world who had the same interests and passions, saying “At long last, I’m not alone!” When AI showed up people started logging on to the internet and wondering, “Uhh… am I alone?”
Because you can’t be sure there’s anyone in there.
I hope she’s right in her surmising that this may push a generation off the Internet and in the direction of more grounded and satisfying human interaction with culture and each other.
In the meantime, I will begin to exercise my prerogatives (in the interest of transparency, I just turned 65) and say to younger people who may be listening. Just say no to the AI companion. Don’t be part of that demographic that gives up on dating a member of the human race just because it’s difficult and awklward and pushes you out of your comfort zone. We were not evolved to be comfortable. It’s not good for us. And our priors are always what dooms us. Don’t have priors. Reflect on them and get ready to jettison them to save your soul. It is necessary.
I know that may seem easy for me to say. I’m a comfortable old white guy living in rural NH and I look the part. But until you get to know me in person, don’t assume that demography equals destiny. Ass u me. Makes an ass out of u and me.
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