[Series] Quid ex Machina
This series Quid ex Machina examines the deep, under-explored, and Unseen impact of AI on humans and our societies. This is not yet-another-hot-take-on-chatGPT.
For my plan on the Unseen and the Interconnected beyond this series, poke here. The 1st agriculture series is here, and the 1st geography series is here.
Prelude: what out of the machine.
There is never any god out of the machine. Behind every role of god, there is a human actor playing that role.
Act I Scene 1: Laws of Art (and AI).
What the AI-copyright legal battles are really about.
TL;DR: it’s the future of artistic expression.
▶️ Featuring: Google, US Constitution, a Playboy competitor, 50 Shades of Grey, and Charles Baudelaire.
Act I Scene 2: Monkey Selfie, AI, and Human Agency
❓What does a monkey selfie have to do with AI and human agency?
❗Everything!
▶️ Featuring: Led Zeppelin, Hegel, monkey selfies, John Locke, US Supreme Court, telephone directories, and US Copyright Office
It’s the first of the shorter, letting-my-hair-down pieces between the long parts.
“AI is a tool invented by humans, and tools of human inventions serve humans. We are masters of our tools, not subservient worshipers to them.”
Act II Scene 1: Twilight of Truth?
chatGPT and Bing Sydney spill nonsense — and that's actually a feature, not a bug. On how language AIs impact our relationship to truth — and what we can do about it.
▶️ Featuring: green cheese, red light, Frank Zappa, Harry Frankfurt, Democritus…Oh, and chatGPT, too!
Shorts One: Losing Sight, Seeing More
How intentionally forgoing my eyesight led me to get a lot more insights on my physical environment, and accessibility technology.
▶️ Featuring: Blind Guardian, screen-reader, Shakespeare, bounce keys, and old-school hand-written writing ✍️
Act II Scene 2: Civilization and Its Distrusts
Or: 🪖How to raise an army with generative AI tools, and overthrow a nation in 2023.;
💲Why your money is even worth anything — and how AIs could render it worthless;
🕵️ How does society even function at all — and how malicious uses of AI can make society dysfunctional.Shots Two: If You Want Good, Prepare for Evil
Or: why both the doomers and techno-utopians are wrong about AI, and how to think about AI based on reality (instead of hype).
▶️ Featuring: cyber-security, HOA rules, an El Greco painting, and a dose of reality
Tangent: Moving Places
Google & Apple Maps run on a very medieval idea, dating back to pre-1650s. This post tells the story behind the scene!
▶️ Featuring: Google Maps, Gordon Ramsey, Julia Childs, Copernicus, and Marcel Proust.
Preamble, Act II Scene 3: Lawless
Or: we have an invisible class of new law-givers, and we barely know them.
▶️ Featuring: taxes, a 100th dentist opinion, and a hook into the next essay
Section 1, Act II Scene 3: New Sheriffs in Town
Or: Software makers are our new law-givers now. How? And why do we barely notice it?
🔀Featuring: John Wayne, RoboCop the film, and a younger me.
Section 2, Act II Scene 3: Of Gods and Steam Engines: A (Brief) Genealogy of Power, Part One
❓: What does Nickelback and Justin Bieber have to do with law-making and the legitimacy of power?❗ A lot! I dive into the topic in this essay
🔀Featuring: Canada, Moses, emperors of China, your landlord, and the IRS
Section 3, Act II Scene 3: Of Chemistry and Office: A (Brief) Genealogy of Power, Part Two
An 18th-century French chemist took up a side-hustle — and it got him executed💀 The crazy story tells us a lot about the shift of power in law-making, and who governs our daily lives.
🔀Featuring: 18th-century history, British civil services, your landlord (again!), and the Catholic church.
Section 4, Act II Scene 3: Of Napoleon and Kafka: A (Brief) Genealogy of Power, Part Three
Napoleon died in 1821. But, through today's software, he is still moving our world, and governing our lives.
🔀Featuring: performance reviews, Napoleon, Kafka, software, the military, Max Weber, and historical links and twists.
More coming soon!